Twin Moons
by The Uncreative
Summary: Louise summons an odd sellsword as a familiar.
1. Chapter 1

_"Breath. Just breathe,"_ Louise thought to herself, trying to keep her emotions steady. " _You can't afford to freak out, Louise. Not today."_

Despite her best efforts, Louise had trouble dispelling the anxiety that was churning in her stomach. Today was the day all second years were to perform the Familiar Summoning Ritual, and many of her classmates were expecting to summon some fantastic beasts. So far the fare had been pretty standard, a young wolf, a black cat, but at the moment, very few students had taken their turn.

Louise scanned the audience of students, counting how many of them had already summoned. While there was an order to who performed the ritual, it wasn't in any obvious one, so the only way Louise could know if her turn was coming was based on how few people there were who _hadn't_ summoned yet. She wasn't sure whether to hope that she went soon and get the whole ordeal over with, or if she wanted to be last and put off the whole affair as long as possible. Unfortunately while looking across the student body, Louise accidentally exchanged a glance with the one person she had hoped to avoid today. The student smirked and waved back.

"Yoo hoo!" Kirche called out as she walked over to Louise. "Big day today, isn't it Zero?"

" _Ignore her and she'll go away."_ Louise thought. It was less a plan of action and more of a desperate hope. A hope that was dashed as Kirche finished walking over to her and proceeded to throw an arm around the smaller girl.

"Why the silent treatment?" Kirche asked, giving Louise a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Hoping if you act like Tabitha you'll become a prodigy like her? I figured you of all people would know superstitions like that have as much a success rate as your magic does!"

"Get _off_ me, Zerbst," Louise growled, shaking free of Kirche's grip. "If you're here to gloat, wait until either of us actually summons something."

"Well, I'm not sure _you_ can say that Ms. 'I'm going to summon the biggest, best familiar Halkegnia has ever seen!'" Kirche reminded Louise of the girl's boasts the night before. "When you make a statement like that of course I'm going to check on you before your big break. I mean, can you imagine? A Zero like you summoning anything half as impressive as you bragged about?"

Louise gritted her teeth in annoyance. She hadn't meant to say anything even remotely that stupid. All it did was make her sound like a child throwing a tantrum. However, the stress she had been accumulating in the weeks leading up to this day, set off by the spark of Kirche's teasing when they ran into each other then simply caused Louise to explode at the red haired girl. Truthfully Louise didn't much care _what_ she summoned, just that she _did_ summon something. That didn't mean much anymore, now that she made it a competition with Kirche.

"Just you wait, Zerbst," Louise finally decided on her response. "My familiar will be so amazing you'll be blown away!"

"I know I'll be blown away, that's what I'm worried about," Kirche said with a wry smile. "Your explosions are always larger than you think they're going to be."

Louise blushed in anger, then turned her away from Kirche, cursing her own poor choice of words.

"Oh come on Zero, you walked right into that one! You can't be mad about that!"

"I'm done speaking with you," Louise replied, still refusing to look at Kirche. "My familiar will say all I need it to once it's summoned."

"Louise Vallière, please approach the summoning circle!" Professor Colbert called out.

"And here's your chance! Go wow everyone with your biggest explosion, Zero!" Kirche said. She gave Louise what was likely supposed to be a friendly pat on the back, but Louise thought it felt a lot more like a forceful slap.

Louise grumbled and stepped up to the summoning circle that was drawn on the ground. She readied her wand and went over the steps to the ritual in her head. She performed each step of the ritual flawlessly, spoke each part of the incantation perfectly. All that was left was to point her wand and bring forth her familiar.

 _"Please. Please, just this once let my magic do something,"_ Louise silently prayed to any higher power might have been listening. _"I don't care what I call, I don't care if it's not the largest, grandest, most awe-inspiring creature. Just let me summon something."_

If there was a higher power looking down on Halkegnia, they responded by blowing up the summoning circle. In grand fashion, as well. It was certainly the largest, grandest explosion Louise had managed to produce in her time at the academy, tossing dirt and dust everywhere. All students were sent reeling, many were blown off their feet and landed flat on their back. Louise had the worst of it, as she was closest to the initial blast zone. There was soot and burn marks all over her clothes, and Louise felt as if a horde of horses had been stampeding across her chest.

 _"Founder, I hope I didn't break anything,"_ Louise thought as she put a hand to her chest to check. _"I can't go to the infirmary for broken ribs twice in one wee-"_

"Wait, my familiar!" Louise bolted upright into a sitting position, wincing in pain as she did so. "Did I…"

Louise looked toward the where the summoning circle would be, but the smoke kicked up by her blast was still too thick to see anything. Amidst all the students coughing and trying to regain their bearings, one cast a wind spell to blow the dust up and away. With the dust finally gone, Louise was able to see what she had summoned.

"A… person?" Louise asked in shock.

Kneeling right where the summoning circle had be drawn with their head tilted toward the ground was indeed a person, though Louise had no idea what to make of them. With them kneeling down hunched over as they were, Louise found it hard to tell much about their physical characteristics, though she noted that her familiar-to-be didn't seem all that tall. The person was wearing an all black ensemble made up of a jacket with the hood drawn over their head, making it difficult to make out their facial features, shorts that just barely came down their thigh, laced boots that rose to their knees and a pair of gloves. Considering how much of their thighs they were showing, Louise was afraid that she had summoned someone from an unsavory profession. What changed Louise's mind was the sword her familiar-to-be had strapped to the back of their waist. It wasn't fancy, or ornate. It was a simple, steel sword you could find wielded by anyone who could afford basic equipment, but it still gave the familiar a threatening presence.

"I summoned… a person?" Louise asked again, pulling herself to her feet. Saying it out loud didn't make the situation in front of her seem any more real.

Kirche had pulled herself into a sitting position to see what her dear "friend" had summoned, and immediately fell backward from laughter.

"AHAHAHAHA! Wow, I shouldn't be as surprised as I am that you summoned a commoner, but oh Founder, that's so rich!"

The crowd of students finally start to reorganize themselves and start muttering to themselves about what just happened, with some joining Kirche in laughing at the Zero's expected failure. Louise tightened her grip on her wand.

"That's not…" Louise's voice trailed off as she looked at her familiar, still kneeling in the summoning circle.

"It's certainly… unusual," Professor Colbert said, rubbing his chin in thought. "But it is what you summoned. As such, I see no reason why the ritual shouldn't continue. Therefore…"

The Professor stopped mid sentence, feeling a change in the air. The Familiar had finally raised her head and locked eyes with Louise. Louise noticed her familiar was breathing heavily, and seemed to be bleeding from several cuts across her face. Louise then noticed several other bleeding cuts across her familiar's arms, legs and torso, as if they had just lost a fairly serious fight. Far as Louise could tell, her familiar didn't seem to be much more than some kind of thug. As the two stared at each other, Louise grew more confused by the second.

"That's… not…"

Before Louise could finish her thought the Familiar produced a small ball from inside her coat. She scraped the fuse across the ground to light it, then tossed the bomb into the crowd.

"Everyone, get away from that!" Colbert warned.

The warning came too late, as the bomb exploded the second it hit the ground, injuring many students and knocking them down. It wasn't a large enough bomb to cause any life threatening damage, baring some truly unfortunate accident, but the Familiar was fine with just knocking as many out of the fight as possible. She took advantage of the confusion caused by the bomb to rush towards Louise. She leapt forward, planting a boot on Louise's chest, and bounced up into the air. While airborne she readied four knives, two in each hand. She threw two into the crowd, one at Colbert, and one at Louise who was still grounded. Louise raised her arms to protect her neck from the knife thrown at it, which only resulted in her getting stabbed in the forearm instead of the neck. An improvement for sure, but Louise would have preferred to not be stabbed at all.

Professor Colbert managed to deflect the knife thrown his way, but the knives thrown at the crowd found home in one student's leg, and another student's arm. The familiar landed on the ground and, having noticed that Louise was struggling to get to her feet, delivered a swift kick to her face, sending her rolling. The familiar prepared her fifth and final knife and tossed it into Louise's thigh, causing her to cry in pain. The Familiar prepared to approach Louise, but was forced to roll backwards to dodge the fireball Colbert had launched at her.

"Everyone, evacuate now!" Colbert called out to the students, casting another fireball spell and launching it at the Familiar, who nimbly dodged.

The students grabbed hold of those injured by the initial blast and rushed for the nearest exit. While many would have loved a chance to watch one of their professors show off their mastery of magic, this was not the situation any of them would have had in mind. While most students headed for the closest exit to get away and alert other staff members, Kirche had a different destination in mind.

"Come on Louise," Kirche said, helping Louise to her feet and providing support.

"Wait, my familiar-"

"Is busy right now," Kirche says. "Let Colbert deal with it and sort it out later. Worse comes to worst you can summon another one, now get limping."

As Louise slowly made her way out of the courtyard, she looked over to her familiar and saw her still engaging Colbert in combat. The Familiar seemed to be having trouble approaching Colbert, as he was using a combination of fireball projectiles and rising flame pillars to keep the Familiar from standing in one place for too long. The Familiar ducked to dodge a large burst of fire, and quickly scanned the courtyard to take stock of her options. One of the three knives still in the courtyard was lying on the ground to her right a fair ways away. A good sprint could get her to it, but if she let Colbert figure out what she was running towards he would know exactly where she wanted to go, and have either and easier time targeting her, or he could use magic to burn the knife and make it unusable. Neither option appealed to her. The second and third knives were piercing Louise's limbs, and the girl in question was being escorted out of the courtyard by Kirche. If she tried to get those knives, that'd mean turning her back on Colbert and leaving herself open, not to mention the possibility of those two joining the fight instead of simply leaving. She was having enough trouble against one person, she didn't need to fight three, not to mention she was exhausted and considered it a miracle she hadn't already passed out.

The Familiar thought carefully, and decided on a plan of action. She dashed towards Colbert, who made several fireballs that he fired at the Familiar in quick succession. She leapt to the side to dodge the initial salvo, and once she hit the ground she rolled to continue her evasion. When she rolled close to where her knife had fallen she scooped it up and threw it at Colbert. The Professor cancelled the spell he was preparing so he could use his staff to deflect the projectile that was aimed at his neck. She used the opening to dash off towards the side, towards Kirche and Louise.

"Ms Valliere, Ms Zerbst, be careful!" Colbert warned the students.

Kirche turned around, only to be met with a flying knee to the face, courtesy of the Familiar, knocking her away from Louise and onto the ground. The Familiar landed on top of Kirche, straddling her torso. The Familiar clasped her hands together and brought them down on Kirche's head. The force of impact caused her head to hit the ground hard, and she lost consciousness. The Familiar rolled off of Kirche toward Louise and got back on her feet. She pulled the knife out of Louise's leg, earning a scream of pain. The Familiar stood upright, and put the knife to Louise's throat, and a hand over her mouth, taking her summoner hostage.

Colbert pointed his staff at the familiar, hoping for some kind of opening that would allow him to separate her from Louise.

"Let go of her this instant," Colbert warned. "You can't hold out much longer, and other staff members will be here shortly. Surrender peacefully and perhaps we can work something out."

The Familiar took advantage of the stalemate to try and catch her breath, as well as reorganize her thoughts. The professor in front of her was looking for even the smallest opening, she had no idea how long the redhead would be out, and at any point reinforcements could be coming. All the Familiar had to defend herself was the knife in her hand and her sword. Two knives and a sword could hardly hold off a single competent mage, let along multiple.

 _"Damn it, this is why I hate fighting mages unprepared,"_ the familiar thought to herself. _"Wait, mages."_

"You're a mage, right? Wand, now," the familiar whispered to her hostage. Louise tensed up upon hearing the Familiar's voice. After a second of not getting the wand, the Familiar pressed the edge of the blade up against Louise's throat. Louise's grip on her wand loosened, and it fell to the ground.

The Familiar let go of Louise and pushed her forward onto the ground. The Familiar quickly dipped down to grab the wand and pointed it at ground she was standing on. There was a small _bang_ as the ground exploded, kicking up dust and creating a smokescreen.

"She's a mage?!" Colbert exclaimed.

Several more bangs covered the courtyard in more smoke, bringing visibility to near zero. Colbert readied himself, preparing for an attack from any direction. A sound behind him caused Colbert to quickly turn around, staff at the ready. Instead of seeing the Familiar, all Colbert saw was a wand on the ground. The Familiar leapt at Colbert from behind with her knife, but barely missed her stab as Colbert twisted out of the way, having anticipated that trick. The Familiar continued her assault, slicing and stabbing at Colbert. While Colbert did everything he could to fight off the Familiar. As a mage, there was only so much that could be done in close quarters combat, and the Familiar was giving him no breathing room to prepare a spell to retaliate with.

The Familiar stabbed at Colbert's chest with her knife, which was just barely blocked by his staff. The knife embedded itself into the wood and was stuck fast. The Familiar let go of the knife and instead grabbed the staff itself and tried to pull it free from Colbert, who kept a firm grip on it. She kicked at Colbert's leg, knocking it out from under him and forcing him to drop to a knee. She followed with a swift headbutt, knocking Colbert back slightly, then putting her boot to his chest and pushing off, using the momentum to tear the staff from his grip. The Familiar swung around and brought the end of the staff to Colbert's head. There was a loud _thwack_ as the two met, and Colbert was knocked over. The Familiar was fairly certain he was unconscious as a result of that hard smack, but hit him in the head again just to be certain.

After confirming that he was down, the Familiar pulled the knife out of the staff and tossed the staff next to the downed mage. She slipped the knife into one of the holsters sewn into the interior of her jacket and stopped to consider what her next course of action should be. She could (and probably should) kill him now to prevent any future grief, but he could have information about where she is or what their plan here was exactly. She didn't know what these people wanted with her, but when she considered the kinds of people that had been after her for a while now, she felt like whatever these people wanted was nothing she wanted a part of. If she hurried, she could likely tie the Professor up and escape to some form of safety before the reinforcements arrived and get the information she wanted. She made her choice and took a step towards Colbert, only to feel what could only be described as a shift in the air. She put up her arms to defend herself, but it was of little use.

There was a loud **_BOOM_** as the ground in front of the Familiar exploded, knocking her back. The Familiar landed on her back, hard. She felt as if a horde of horses had been stampeding across her chest, and checked to make sure no ribs had been broken. She didn't have the time or energy to add that to her current list of injuries. She seemed to be in not terrible condition, so she sat up to see what happened and saw Louise struggling to stay standing, holding a wand pointed at the Familiar.

She wondered where the peach haired girl had found a second wand, only to realize she probably pilfered it form the unconscious redhead next to her. Not only was it likely, it was stupid of her to assume that the redhead had been anything _other_ than a mage as well. The Familiar cursed her oversight.

The Familiar stood up and looked Louise in the eyes. She wasn't entirely sure what the expression the pink haired girl in front of her had was supposed to convey. Some combination of determination, fear and confusion? Maybe a little anger mixed in? She wasn't sure. She was a sellsword, not a merchant, she couldn't read people if they had their thoughts literally written on their face. The Familiar realized that the explosion had knocked her hood off, so she pulled it back over her head. While she had no outward reason to, she felt calmer when she hid herself in her jacket's hood. She unsheathed her sword and pointed it at her attacker.

 _"Breathe. Just breathe,"_ she thought, attempting to refocusing herself.

The Familiar charged at Louise, who tried to stop her by firing off as many explosions as she could. Unfortunately, and likely as a result of the blood loss caused by the knife wounds she sustained, Louise was growing very dizzy which did nothing to help her accuracy. The Familiar continued her rush, undeterred by the explosions that were going off around her and closed the gap between the two. A quick kick knocked the wand out of Louise's hand and the Familiar readied her sword. Without her wand, there was little Louise could do to stop her familiar-to-be from driving the sword through her stomach.

Louise coughed up blood and looked down at the sword sticking out of her. She looked up and found her face mere inches away from her familiar's. She noted that her familiar had a perfectly neutral expression. No anger, no sadness, nothing. Just a cold precision from someone who had likely killed many a time before.

Louise didn't know what to do. It was too much happening at once for her to process. None of this was supposed to happen. She was supposed to summon a familiar that would finally get her the recognition she felt she deserved. Instead, her familiar had assaulted her classmates, her teacher, and had now gone for her very life. This damn familiar…

Louise reached forward and grabbed the sides of her Familiar's head. She leaned forward and gave her Familiar a light kiss on the lips.

"You're my familiar… You should… listen… to… me," Louise forced the words out before losing consciousness.

The unexpected action shocked her familiar enough to cause her to let go of the sword. Without the support of her familiar holding her up, Louise collapsed to the floor. As her familiar tried to figure out what she had just done, she felt a burning sensation on her chest. She pulled her collar out and looked down at her chest and saw runes carving themselves into her skin.

 _"What… but… she said I'm her familiar? I…"_ The Familiar looked at the building the courtyard belonged to. It seemed somewhat familiar but she had trouble placing it. All of a sudden it felt as if the last puzzle piece had finally slotted itself into place.

 _"Shit, I really screwed this one up,"_ the familiar cursed her own impatience and actions, then realized there was a more immediate problem. _"Shit! Gotta find a medic right away!"_

The Familiar picked up her master and rushed off into the castle in hopes of finding a mage who was at least halfway decent with healing magic. As she ran she hoped she hadn't made an irreversible mistake.

* * *

When Louise woke up, she found herself in her bed, in her room at the academy. She didn't get up immediately, instead lying on her back and staring up at the ceiling. She felt like something was off, but she didn't know what. Her bed felt the same, the ceiling was fine, her uniform fit her the same as it usually did, so what was this nagging feeling in her brain? At once, Louise remembered everything that had happened. Her summoning and the familiar it brought forth, the chaos in the courtyard and finally her familiar attacking her. Attacking? No, the familiar had…

Louise sat up and looked down toward her stomach. It looked fine, so she poked at it a bit, but it didn't seem like there was anything wrong. She looked at her arm and leg where the familiar had thrown knives at her, but she seemed fine.

"Healing magic sure does wonders, doesn't it?"

Louise yelped and nearly fell out of bed from shock. She looked toward the voice and saw her familiar leaning against the wall near the corner of the room, arms crossed. She was still wearing the same outfit she had been at the summoning, though her sword wasn't strapped to her waist and was instead resting on Louise's desk. She was also bandaged up, with bandages all over her arms, legs, and a patch on her face.

"Don't go moving too quickly now," her familiar warned. "You've been out cold for a couple hours, you might be a little dizzy still. When I got it half as bad as you did it took me days to recover. Course I didn't have an army of triangle and square classes mages lined up to heal me. Still don't, I had to borrow bandages from the nurse to finally get some treatment. Why's a school with a healing mage still carry bandages anyway?"

"You're… my familiar. Right?" Louise asked the girl.

"By all rights," she responded. "Judging by the runes that magically appeared on my chest and all that."

"What happened?"

"I stabbed you."

"I… I meant after that. How did I get here alive?"

"I found out I royally screwed up and took you to a healer. Thankfully the staff was already on their way to the courtyard, though they originally got caught up with calming the mass hoard of students that were stampeding down the halls. When they saw the condition you were in, they dropped everything to focus on you. Good thing too, you were probably seconds away from death, what with the blood loss from the stab wound in the arm. And the other stabbing in your leg. And the sword. You were kind of pincushiony, to be honest."

An awkward silence fell as neither knew what to say next. After a minute the familiar sighed.

"Look I… I'm sorry," she finally said. "I wasn't in a good spot and made a bad call. Because of that I made an impossibly large mistake that I'll likely never be able to properly make up to you or anyone here."

"That's… well it's not fine but…" Louise was still fumbling for her words. Eventually she threw her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. She walked over to her familiar, stopping a few paces away. "Before we talk about anything else, I should introduce myself. My name is Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière. May I get your name?"

The Familiar hesitated, before eventually nodding. She lowered her hood and shook out her long, pink hair.

"Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, third daughter of Duke Centurion la Vallière and Duchess Karin Desiree la Vallière, at your service."

Louise was silent for a minute, before letting out a long sigh.

"Were you expecting something different?" Her familiar asked.

"No, of course not," Louise said. "I was just hoping that hearing you say it out loud would make it seem even slightest bit more real."

"… Well did it?"

"Of course not!" Louise exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "I finally get a chance to summon my familiar and prove I'm a respectable mage and not only do I somehow summon some weird version of myself-"

"I'm not weird!"

"But she's a violent thug!" Louise ignored her doppelgänger's outburst. "You hurt all those other students, you knocked out one of my teachers and you even stabbed…"

Louise stopped her rant as she recalled just what it was her familiar did to her. She recalled the feeling of the sword entering her stomach and shuddered. The other Louise looked very guilty as she cast her gaze towards the floor.

"I'm sorry," the alternate Louise said.

"So you said," Louise responded, not looking her familiar in the eye.

"I really am," the alternate Louise repeated. "It's not an excuse, but you saw how beaten and bloody I was, right? That was from just like ten minutes before you summoned me, I was exhausted, hurt, my head was spinning and all of a sudden I'm somewhere completely different and there's a bunch of people I don't know and someone who looks exactly like me and they're talking about a 'ritual' and… I don't know, I just panicked."

"You're a Vallière, how is it that your first instinct when panicking is to start stabbing?" Louise asked. "Surely you were raised better than that."

The other Louise's expression soured.

"How I was raised is none of your business," she curtly responded.

"Of course it's my business!" Louise replied. "Not only are you my familiar, you're me! How could a proper noble like me fall so far and become some kind of sword wielding thug?"

"I'm _not_ a thug!" the other Louise roared, taking a heavy step toward her master. Her outburst caused Louise to shrink back, and the Familiar remembered that she needed to tread more carefully. She didn't want to make things any more messy than they already were.. "… Sorry. I'm not a thug, I'm a sellsword."

"And how is that any different?" Louise asked in response.

"I don't go around just stabbing and beating up people for a good time."

"No, you just do it for money," Louise accused her.

"Yeah, but I only rough up people when I'm given good reason!" the other Louise defended herself.

"Like earlier today in the courtyard?"

The Other Louise didn't have a response to that.

"So what now?" Louise asked her familiar, folding her arms in front of her chest. "How are we planning on explaining you?"

"Do we have to?" Louise responded. "No one's going to believe I'm some alternate you, or you're an alternate me or whatever. It'll just wind up as some weird rumor like 'Louise summoned her illegitimate twin who was sent off for being a disappointment!' or something like that, and I really don't want to have to explain myself to them every time. Let's just give them a cover story, it's easier."

"In that case… I think I can come up with something if anyone asks, but I'd rather they just not ask at all."

"Is the story going to cover me blowing up the courtyard?" the other Louise asked. "Not the bomb, the magic. I don't think anyone else saw it, but there's no way the didn't hear it.

"It doesn't need to, they'll probably just assume the explosions were from me. They're used to me blowing things up," Louise admitted sheepishly.

"Oh, you have magic problems too?" Louise asked.

"Too? Are you also 'Louise the Zero?'"

"Heard it once or twice," the Familiar said with a forlorn sigh. "Since you pulled off the familiar summoning ritual I hoped you'd have had better luck than I did in that regard. What a shitshow this keeps turning out to be."

"Watch your tongue," Louise admonished her familiar. "You're a noble, you should make sure to conduct yourself appropriately."

Louise the Familiar was slightly startled by what her master had just told her. She couldn't remember the last time anyone had chastised her for her manners, so this was a foreign feeling.

"Uh… I mean…" she faltered a bit to figure out how to respond to that. Before she could figure out what to say there was a knock on the door.

"Excuse me, is Ms. Vallière awake yet?" Professor Colbert's voice came from from the other side of the door.

"I am," Louise responded.

"Ah, that's good. When you're ready, the headmaster wished to speak with you about your familiar. Have a good day," Colbert finished before leaving.

"So how screwed am I?" the Other Louise asked.

"Do you _really_ need me to spell out what you did?" Louise asks. "Hurry up and get ready. If you're sufficiently apologetic and explain yourself then maybe they'll go easy on you."

"I can probably do that," Louise the Familiar said as she pulled her hood over her head. "Well, let's go then."

* * *

Louise and her familiar were standing in the headmaster's office along with Professor Colber and Headmaster Osmand. While Colbert kept a neutral expression, Louise the Familiar felt he was probably not too happy to see her again. While she was bad at reading people, she would have been very surprised if he held no negative feelings towards her after the earlier events. Osmand, by contrast, seemed completely at ease with the situation. Whether it was because he hadn't seen the events and only heard of them secondhand, or if he felt that if anything happened he could handle it easily, she wasn't sure.

"So, this is our troublemaker," Osmand opened with. "And she's your familiar, Ms. Vallière?"

"Yes, Headmaster."

"Care to introduce us to her?"

"Of course. This is… Elle, my familiar. She's a sellsword from a noble bloodline, though she's not a noble herself. That's all she's told me about herself so far."

"Elle?" her familiar whispered to her.

"First name that came to mind," Louise whispered back.

"I see," Osmand said, stroking his beard in thought. "So then, Ms. Elle, was it?"

"Yea- ehem, yes?" Elle lowered her pitch just slightly to make it less obvious she and her master shared a voice. If they figured it out, they figured it out, but she would have really preferred it if they didn't. It would be too much of a pain to explain something she knew nothing about.

"Would you care to explain why you attack our students in the courtyard today?"

"Well…" Elle thought hard about where to begin. "Okay, so… I'm not sure if you noticed when I first showed up, but I was kind of injured. Cuts, bruises, stuff like that, right?"

"Was she?" Osmand asked Colbert, who nodded.

"When she first showed up in the summoning circle, she did appear slightly wounded, and was breathing heavily," Colbert confirms.

"Right! So that happened because I was… being chased by some people. A bunch of awful thugs that had been chasing me for a couple weeks now at this point. Just a bit before I got brought here I had just finished fighting what I really hope was the last of them. While I can proudly say I won the fight, it wasn't as clean a victory as I'd have liked, and they had managed to add several wounds to the ones I had already taken in previous encounters. The summoning that brought me here was unexpected, and when coupled with my current exhaustion led to me being very confused. I vaguely heard some of the people in the courtyard talking and caught something about a 'ritual.' I didn't catch the 'Familiar summoning' part of that, and assumed the worse. Exhaustion and paranoia can cause that."

Elle was proud of her response. She got all the information out and was able to sound somewhat polite while doing it!

"If you don't mind me asking-"

"I do," Elle interrupted Colbert, and in doing such received an elbow to the gut from Louise. "Ow! Fine, ask."

"You said you were being chased, right? Who was chasing you and why?" Colbert asked, suspicion in his voice.

"Were you not listening? It was thugs, who knows why?" Elle said with a shrug. "Probably stepped in their territory or something."

"I have a hard time believing that street thugs would be chasing after a person for several weeks straight, as you say, without a particularly compelling reason," Colbert reasoned. "Most would simply give up and move on to the next target when their original one proves too much trouble."

"Are you saying you don't believe me?" Elle asked, taking a step toward Colbert.

"I don't believe you're being forthcoming with us, no," Colbert replied, glaring at Elle.

The two glared at each other, Colbert tightening his grip on his staff, and Elle readied to reach into her jacket and draw her knife.

"F-Familiar, stop this now!" Louise called out.

There was a pause, but eventually Elle clicked her tongue and turned away, taking a few steps back and positioning herself next to Louise.

"My apologies," Colbert offered, relaxing his grip on his staff slightly. "I'm not usually this combative. I'm just having a hard time believing such a vague story, and considering how our first encounter went, I believe you can understand why I would be wary of you."

"Well, believe me or don't," Elle said. "I panicked and made a mistake. One that I apologize for and promise will not be repeated."

"And if you won't be truthful with us about what you were doing prior to your summoning, how can we trust you to be truthful about that promise?" Colbert asked.

"Because I'm her familiar," Elle said, giving Louise a hard slap on the back. "I may not be a proper mage, but that doesn't mean I don't know what a familiar is supposed to do. Keep her safe, follow orders, yadda yadda. It's a bodyguard job, and unless the entire student body decides to violently gang up on her, I have no reason to do anything."

"And you _are_ her familiar, correct?" Osmand asks.

"… Yes? Was that in question?" Elle asked.

"You'll have to forgive me, but it's still hard to believe that a human was summoned as a familiar," Osmand explained. "In the entire history of this academy there's no record of another human being summoned as a familiar."

"Well if I'm not a familiar tell it to the runes," Elle said, unzipping her jacket and pulling the collar of her shirt down past her collarbone to show a glimpse of the runes that were engraved on her chest. "That's all you're getting, I'm not taking off my shirt so you can get a better glimpse."

"O-Of course not!" Louise exclaimed. "That'd be indecent!"

"Hmm…" Osmand hummed in thought. "If nothing else, I suppose we have no choice to accept that she has been summoned as a familiar, unusual as it is. Unfortunately, that leaves us with a problem."

"Problem?" Louise asked.

"You see, several members of the staff and student body are none to happy with your familiar, as I'm sure you could have guessed," Osmand explained. "Some are even calling for the dismissal of not just the familiar, but the master who summoned her to begin with."

"Bullshit!" Elle called out. "Kick me out for my screwup if you want, she just got a short end of the stick! Not like she chose to summon me!"

Osmand held up a hand to signal that Elle should hold her tongue for a moment.

"A threat to the student body, such as yourself, should not be allowed to stay within the walls of the academy. The familiar is the responsibility of the master, are they not? If the familiar is to be punished, the master should share the punishment. So the argument goes, anyway. That said, Ms. Vallière. Do you believe that Ms. Elle is a threat to the students here?"

"Huh? You're asking me?" Louise asked.

"While you and I both witnessed your familiar's actions firsthand to a greater degree than the other students, you've actually conversed with her as well," Colbert explained. "If anyone were the best fit to judge their character, it would be you."

Louise pondered for a second. She looked at Elle, who looked back at her. Louise still felt uneasy about looking herself in the eye.

"I… don't believe that she's likely to attack other students," Louise eventually responded, turning back to Colbert and Osmand. "If she was a true threat who just wanted to do harm, she would have let me die instead of taking me to a healer when she realized her mistake. When coupled with what I've learned from talking to her, I believe she's harmless enough."

"And if she were to get into trouble, for any reason, are you willing to accept the responsibility for her actions?" Osmand asked.

"Of course. She's my familiar, and I am her master," Louise said with a nod.

"Very good," Osmand replied. "In that case, we will refrain from any immediate disciplinary action regarding your familiar's actions. Do be aware, this is not forgiveness, nor are we going to simply overlook this matter. We are choosing to believe that your familiar truly did just make a mistake and is no threat, but should she cause a disturbance in any way, we will not hesitate to remove her and you from the academy. Have I made myself clear?"

"Crystal," Elle replied. "I'm on probation watch for the foreseeable future."

"We understand, Headmaster," Louise agreed. "I will keep an eye on her at all times to make sure she remains on her best behavior."

Elle was about to complain about how she didn't need a babysitter, but thought that perhaps there was a time and place to be annoyed by such things.

"Very well then," Osmand said. "Professor Colbert and I have other matters to discuss, so you two are dismissed."

"Thank you very much for your understanding, Headmaster," Louise and Elle responded in unison before exiting the office.

* * *

As Louise and Elle walked back to their room they passed by many other students. As the two walked by, the students would look at them pass and begin whispering to each other.

"That's the familiar."

"You said she blew up a bunch of people with a bomb?"

"Not just that, she beat Professor Colbert in a fight!"

"What? You're kidding! But she's just a commoner right? Professor Colbert is a square-class mage!"

"That's what I heard. And get this, she nearly killed-"

"Hey," Elle called out, startling the gossiping students. "I thought nobles were above something as callous as talking about someone behind their back?"

"Y-yes, of course. S-sorry," one of the students said before they both scurried off. Once they were out of earshot Elle sighed.

"Word spreads way too fast for my tastes," she mused. "Already got a reputation."

"Were you really expecting anything different?" Louise asked.

"No, but a girl can dream, right?" Elle replied, putting her hands behind her head. "I'd have liked to blend in for maybe a bit longer, but that's impossible now."

"With your outfit, blending in was never an option," Louise told her familiar. "You stick out like a sore thumb."

"It's easy to move in and is perfectly modest," Elle defended her outfit. "Except for the thighs, I guess, but oh well. Not like this is my usual work outfit anyway, it's just all I had when you summoned me."

"Well, we can go shopping on the next break day," Louise said. "Until then you can wear my clothes when your's are being washed. They should fit you."

"Already planning a date with you familiar, eh Vallière?" a voice cut into the conversation.

"Zerbst," Louise growled. "No familiar yet?"

"Well, due to a certain someone's little party in the courtyard, the whole thing was thrown off schedule," Kirche explained. "You know, what with the healing a bunch of people needed and all the teachers having emergency meetings about the whole affair. Everyone who didn't summon will do it tomorrow instead. A real shame for sure. I was _sooooo_ looking forward to getting my own adorable little familiar."

"Is that so," Louise didn't really care about what Kirche was saying in the slightest. "So what do you want this time?"

"So hostile! And after all I did to help you when your familiar was going crazy," Kirche said, her smirk betraying the feigned sadness in her voice. "I suppose that lack of manners is to be expected from you."

Louise opened her mouth to respond to that, but was interrupted by Elle.

"Oh!" she said, pounding a fist into her hand. "You're the redhead I knocked out earlier. Almost didn't recognize you since I didn't get a good look at you before I smacked you into the dirt."

Kirche's smirk faltered, as Elle's outburst threw off her rhythm.

"That… that's right, yes," Kirche responded.

"I deeply apologize," Elle said with a bow. "I made a mistake that I very much regret and will work to make sure that I don't do it again. I'm sorry, and I thank you for trying to help Louise."

"Oh… um…" Kirche hadn't expected that sincere of a response from the familiar. "Wow Vallière, your familiar is significantly more well-mannered than you are."

"Familiar, get your head up!" Louise yelled at Elle. "You don't need to apologize like that to Kirche!"

"Why wouldn't I?" Elle asked her master. "I did attack her, and she's the only one who actually tried helping you, wasn't she? Isn't apologizing the polite thing here?"

"Don't talk back to me!" Louise exclaimed. "Be that as it may, the Vallière and the Zerbst family have had bad blood for generations! Even if she did try to help me, that hardly does anything to make up for the way her family has tried to shame the Vallières in the past!"

 _"Is that how it was?"_ Elle dug deep into her memories to see if she could remember anything about the Zerbsts. Elle didn't know Kirche personally, but if the Zerbsts and the Vallières hated each other as much as Louise said they did, she likely would have remembered hearing something about it when growing up. Elle could vaguely remember something about a Zerbst stealing the fiancé of a Vallière heir some three or four generations ago, but that seemed fairly paltry.

"But she still helped you," Elle settled on that as her reply. "If there is any lost love between your families, she clearly doesn't seem to feel badly towards you."

"Oh of course, I just adore my little darling Zero!" Kirche said, pulling Louise into a tight hug.

"Don't call me that!" Louise said, pushing Kirche off of her. "And don't touch me either! Familiar, we're leaving."

Louise stomped off towards her room, but Elle stood in place.

"No."

Louise stopped her walk and looked back at Elle.

"No?"

"No," Elle repeated. "Not until you thank her for saving you."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Kirche said, trying to wave away Elle's concerns. "Louise is always like this, it's fine. 'Zero' doesn't just refer to her casting success rate, it also describes her manners."

"Maybe I'd be more inclined to thank you if you didn't insist on insulting me like that whenever you got the chance!" Louise yelled at Kirche. "Elle. We're going."

"I'll go," Elle said, her voice neutral. "I'll go, once you say thanks. It's not hard."

"I'm not going to repeat myself," Louise said. "I'm the master, you're the familiar, so you have to listen to me. We're going now."

"Is it really that hard to thank someone who saved your life?" Elle asked, anger rising in her voice.

"I'd have been fine anyway, all she did was get herself knocked out," Louise argued with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"It's fine… Elle, was your name?" Kirche asked, recalling what Louise had just called her familiar. "I wasn't expecting a thanks or anything like that I was just-"

Before Kirche could finish her sentence, Elle took action. She dashed towards Louise, grabbed her arm and pinned it behind her back.

"F-Familiar?" Louise asked in surprise.

"Oh really? If Kirche here hadn't helped you out, what do you think would have happened?" Elle asked, keeping Louise's arm pinned tightly to her back. "Are you fine with the idea of lying in the courtyard bleeding from those knife wounds?"

"I d-don't- AH!" Louise cried out in pain as Elle twisted her arm a bit more.

"H-hey, what are you doing?" Kirche asked, her earlier playful tone replaced with one of worry.

"She took a risk to help you out despite the bad history between you two and you can't say two goddamn words?" Elle continued, putting more pressure on Louise's arm.

"I-I'm sor- AAHH!"

"I don't want an apology!" Elle roared, twisting Louise's arm more. "I don't want you talking to me at all, talk to her and say thank you, you stubborn brat!"

"T-T-T-"

"Speak up!"

Louise tried to speak, but her throat seemed to simply close up. Her arm felt like it was ready to twist off at any moment, but she couldn't seem to say anything. She was reminded of just earlier that day, when her familiar held a knife to her throat. Louise knew Elle still had the knife on her, and was scared that if she didn't say something soon Elle might think about using it.

"Cut it out!" Kirche exclaimed, taking a step forward. "Stop hurting Louise already!"

Elle paused. She blinked once, then twice, then finally seemed to realize what she was doing. She looked at Louise, whose arm she still had pinned. She let go, and Louise stumbled forward a step or two before falling onto her knees. Kirche kneeled down to check on her, and both looked back at Elle. Kirche wore a stern expression on her face, while Louise was frightened and seemed to be holding back tears.

"I… I'm…" Elle didn't know what to say, so she turned around and ran off.

"Hey, get back here!" Kirche called out. She stood up to chase Elle down and give her a piece of her mind, but was stopped by a tug on her cloak. She looked down and saw Louise holding onto her cloak.

"It's fine," she said quietly.

"But-"

"It's fine," Louise said firmly.

Kirche didn't say anything for a moment, but eventually nodded her head.

"Is your arm okay?" Kirche asked.

"Good enough, not anything to see the nurse about," Louise said, rotating her arm to try and work out the soreness.

"Are you okay?" Kirche followed up.

"I'm fi-"

"It was a rhetorical question, you're clearly not fine," Kirche said, kneeling back down next to Louise. "Want to talk about it?"

"I'm fine," Louise insisted. "I just… kind of froze up for a second there. I was remembering earlier today, back in the courtyard. This was better than that, I guess, since she didn't have a knife to my throat this time."

"She what?" Kirche was shocked.

"Right, that was right after she knocked you out," Louise gave a humorless chuckle as she remembered that.

"Louise, are you going to be okay with that familiar?" Kirche asked.

"Honestly, it's not me I'm really worried about," Louise said, finally deciding to try and stand up. She got about halfway up before he knees gave out and she nearly fell to the ground again. Luckily Kirche was there to catch her.

"Easy there," Kirche said. "Take it slowly, got it?"

"Right, right," Louise said. She stood back up, feeling a small amount of pride over the fact that she didn't fall over again and started back towards her room. After four steps she paused. "Kirche?"

"Yes?"

"Um… Thanks," Louise said quietly. "For now and earlier."

"Don't worry about it, Zero," Kirche said with a smile. "Though I suppose I can't call you that anymore. A successful summon, and you're growing some manners."

Louise wanted to respond, but couldn't think of a good enough reply so she simply gave an awkward nod of the head before turning and heading back to her room.

When Louise was gone from sight, Kirche gave a worried sigh.

* * *

"I sure hope you know what you're doing," Kirche said to no one in particular.

Elle sat outside of her and Louise's room. She hugged her knees and tried to curl into as small of a ball as she could in the hopes of pulling off a miracle and simply vanishing.

She heard footsteps approaching and looked up to see Louise approaching her. When she got close enough, Louise stopped walking and looked at Elle. The two were quiet for a moment before Elle broke the silence.

"The uh... the door was locked," Elle explained. "I don't have a key. Or unlocking magic."

Louise nodded. She fished the key out of her shirt pocket, unlocked the door and opened it.

"Do you mind talking in here?" Louise asked. Elle shook her head, stood up and followed Louise into their room.

Once inside with the door firmly shut, the awkward silence returned. Louise walked over and sat on the bed while Elle kept pacing around the room. It was hard to tell which of the two was more nervous.

"Look/I-" they both spoke at once. They paused, and Louise cleared her throat.

"You may talk first," she said.

Elle nodded, and tried getting her thoughts in order. While "I'm sorry" would have been a fine place to start, it would hardly be enough at the point.

"I guess I should start with apologizing," Elle said, trying to buy enough time to figure out what she should actually say. So... I'm sorry."

Louise nodded, but didn't say anything. Elle waited for a response, but after realizing she wasn't getting one yet, decided to continue.

"It's just been a very hard couple of weeks, capped off with the madness that is today. Even if we just ignore all that stuff and just focus on me, all that violence just... kind of comes to me naturally. I've been a mercenar- sorry, a sellsword, sellsword sounds better, for years at this point. I never really learned to control my temper that well. So I'm sorry that I tried to kill you, and that I tried to force you to thank that redhead. I just got rubbed the wrong way by how ungrateful you were to someone that genuinely just tried to help you, even if the two of you weren't on the best of terms. Back with..."

Elle trailed off.

"Back with?" Louise tried prompting her to continue, but Elle shook her head.

"Not important," she said quickly. "It's just that I've known some people that got themselves hurt trying to help me, and without them I wouldn't be here now, so that kind of stuff just means a lot to me, I guess. I don't know. I just know that I've got a temper I need to work on. Which is a problem, since if I screw up I'll get you kicked out. Maybe I should talk to the headmaster, see if we can break this thing off and send me on my way. It's probably be better for you in the long run."

Louise thought about all that she had just heard. She chose her words carefully.

"I can't claim to know what you've been through up to this point," Louise said. "What I _do_ know is that as a familiar your behavior today was unacceptable."

"... Huh?"

"Picking a fight with Professor Colbert in the headmaster's office, scaring off those gossiping students, the..." Louise faltered, but quickly regained her feigned bravado. "The way you essentially held me hostage and tried to force me to thank someone I originally had no intention of thanking, it's all unacceptable. Clearly you'll need more training if you're to ever hope to be a proper familiar. As such, you are to remain here at the academy for now. While you have temperamental issues, you have also shown a willingness to overcome them, which is important."

Elle was stunned.

"You're keeping me around?" She asked. "That seems like a terrible idea."

"Oh absolutely it is," Louise agreed. "That said, how could I call myself a noble if I don't take a chance to try and help someone in need?"

"I'm not _in need_ in any way, shape or form!" Elle protested. "I can take care of myself just fine!"

"Do you have a place to stay outside the academy?" Louise asked.

Elle was silent.

"Do you have any money to buy food when you're out there?"

Elle was silent.

"Do you even have any spare clothes at all?"

"I get it, I get it!" Elle replies, feeling ready to tear her hair out. She took a deep breath to calm herself, then gave a small bow in Louise's direction. "I, Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, shall gratefully accept the most generous hospitality you have shown me tonight."

"Too stiff."

"I don't remember how to act like a noble, cut me some slack!" Elle complained, snapping her head up to look at her master.

"It's something we'll have to work on I suppose," Louise said with a sigh, she turned her head and caught a glimpse of how dark it was outside her window. "Oh wow, it's so late already!"

"You did spend most of the day unconscious," Elle pointed out.

"True. I suppose I should ready myself for bed," Louise said as she stood up and walked over to her wardrobe. "What about you?"

"What _about_ me?" Elle asked.

"Do you need a nightgown? I've got some I can spare," Louise offered, pulling out two nightgowns to show her Familiar.

"I'm fine," Elle said as she removed her jacket, revealing the white tank top she wore underneath. "Got anywhere to hang this up?"

"Coat rack over there," Louise pointed towards the corner of the room.

"Perfect," Elle said. She walked over, hung her jacket on the coat rack and then leaned up against the wall.

"Claiming your territory?" Louise asked as she changed into her nightdress.

"I've long since trained myself to sleep standing up, so I'll be fine here," Elle explained as she took off her boots.

"Really?"

"Well, not trained, but I am used to it," Elle corrected herself. "Couldn't always afford my own room at an inn and needed to double, triple, or sometimes even quadruple up. One bed very rarely fits four people."

"I see. Well… Good night, Louise."

"Same. Night, Louise."

* * *

Louise wasn't sure what to make of her familiar. She had tried to not think about how she was feeling all day, but now that it was night she had nothing to do but think. She was of two minds about pretty much everything.

On one hand, she had finally managed to cast a spell and summoned her own familiar! On the other hand, her familiar was a mercenary with a violent temper.

On one hand, her familiar was a violent sellsword who could snap at a moment's notice. On the other hand her familiar was… well her.

That was the main sticking point for Louise and the major source of her conflicting feelings. If her familiar had just been some random person who seemed nice enough but had anger issues that'd be one thing. Heck, if that had been the case then all things considered Louise wouldn't have thought twice about kicking her out after everything she'd done today. If it had been anyone else, Louise would have just assumed the apologies were hollow, a way to try and play on her sympathies. After all, how could someone so easily and calmly run someone through with a sword one moment, then later apologize so profusely for it? It would be insincere at best.

Of course, that wasn't the case here, as Louise could tell, and that just made her more unsure of the situation. It made Louise wonder just what could have happened. She was wondering what could have possibly happened to her that could have turned her into… that. They had the same name, the same parents, the same face, but they weren't the same person.

Louise noticed it in the way Elle conducted herself. Louise had always been taught that as a noble she had to hold herself to a higher standard than other people. She always kept a straight posture, walked in even steps, focused intently on whoever she might have been speaking to, standard things all children of nobility were taught. Elle's posture was much looser, she was constantly looking around and seemed to never focus on anything, and her language was rough. While Elle did talk in a slightly lower pitch to try and hide that she and Louise had the same voice, Louise felt that even if she hadn't people might not have noticed unless they were already looking for it. Elle had a bit of gruff to her natural voice, the inflections she put on certain words, it was all different from Louise's usual pattern of speech. She figured it was likely a matter of life as a sellsword. Louise heard various stories about sellswords and the like around the academy and it never sounded particularly glorious. Louise wondered just what Elle had been through that could have ground down her noble teachings as much as it had.

Louise just didn't know. As she thought about her familiar her mind drifted back to earlier in the courtyard, when her familiar had stabbed her with her sword. Louise could vividly remember the feeling of the steel piercing through her flesh, the feeling of her consciousness fading, Elle's complete lack of reaction to the attempted murder. Louise shuddered and had to fight down the wave of nausea that was threatening to come over her. Just how many people did she kill before this that she showed such little emotion over the act? The question weighed heavily on Louise's mind until she eventually managed to fall asleep.

* * *

Elle couldn't sleep and that really annoyed her. After how much of a rollercoaster this day had been she would have loved to get some rest for the first time in weeks. Unfortunately she didn't seem lucky enough to get that. Elle sighed and walked over to the window. She opened it up and let the cool night air blow past her.

As Elle looked out the window at the view of the courtyard she realized what her problem was. It was too quiet. Before, Elle had always slept in spare rooms at inns and other such establishments, so there was always noise. Be it the folks next door who were a little too tipsy and have great time, the people on the floor above who were in a heated argument about something or other, or even just the roommates she often had, Elle wasn't used to it being this quiet at night, it was unnerving.

Elle sighed and was about to close the window when she noticed something. She looked up into the sky and saw two moons, one blue, one pink. As Elle looked at the two moons, it was as if everything that had happened that day no longer mattered to her. While she knew where she had been summoned too for most of the day, she never had a chance to truly recognize it. Now that she had finally had a quiet moment to herself, the true significance of where she was finally occurred to her. This wasn't a hallucination, or a dream. She really was in Halkeginia. A wave of emotions came over her and she began tearing up.

"I'm really home," she said, looking up at the moons. "I'm finally home."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Elle was somewhat surprised when she woke up the next morning. She half expected to wake up in a panicked frenzy, wondering where she was or what was happening. Instead, she woke up rather peacefully and feeling quite refreshed, which wasn't something she was used to. She then noticed that rather than standing in the corner, as she said she would, she appeared to be sprawled out on the floor in the middle of the room.

"Finally awake, are you? I thought you said you could sleep standing up?" Louise asked, standing near her dresser, getting ready for a day at school.

"I say a lot of things," Elle settled on, pulling herself into a sitting position. "Cut me some slack, I hadn't had a good sleep in weeks, these things happen. So what's the schedule for today, just normal, boring classes?"

"I don't know," Louise admitted. "The way it was _supposed_ to go was that yesterday everyone would summon a familiar, and today there'd be a class period specifically for the masters to get to learn about said familiar. Since they didn't get through with everyone yesterday, they'll probably try to finish that up today and make the 'learn about your familiar' period as something to be done on the student's own time. There's plenty of time for that in the morning and evenings before and after classes."

"So where's that leave me?" Elle asked. "I don't think they'll just let me wander about as I please, but I'm not exactly a student here so I don't think they'd let me in the classroom."

"That's fine, you'll be accompanying me," Louise told her as she put on her cloak. "The rules state that a Familiar is allowed to attend classes with its master so long as the Familiar isn't too disruptive. Are you planning on being disruptive?"

"I always plan for it, but I can hold off for today," Elle said as she stood up and stretched. "Gimme a moment to get ready."

Elle wasn't exactly beaming at the thought of going to class for varying reasons, but she felt like it'd be a nice refresher. She hadn't been in Halkeginia for years, so many finer details were somewhat lost to her. She didn't want to get mixed up on anything important. She slipped on her boots, zipped up her jacket and pulled the hood over her head.

"Where did you even find that ratty thing?" Louise asked as she examined Elle's jacket. "It looks like it's ready to fall apart."

"Probably because it already has at least twice," Elle replies, looking at the cuts and tears on the jacket. "I've had it for... god, three years now I think? Gift from a friend."

"We'll have to find you a new one next time we're in town," Louise said as she gathered her school supplies. "That or at least a decent tailor to fix it up. You look like a vagrant."

Elle would have been more annoyed by the insult if she hadn't already heard such talk constantly, including from the person who gave her the jacket. She learned to stop caring. The jacket was too comfortable, and she rarely had enough money on hand to actually afford a replacement.

"Whatever, let's just go," Elle said as she headed for the door.

* * *

Louise didn't know what exactly to expect from her familiar during class. She anticipated there might be some commotion from the other students when she walked into the class like nothing happened yesterday, but she hoped it would be manageable. Instead once she and Elle walked into the classroom all the students present quieted down. Some of them glared at Elle, some seemed somewhat nervous, and some seemed ready to draw their wand at a moment's notice, but none said a word.

Louise quietly sighed in relief. Perhaps expecting an actual uproar was a bit foolish. She felt that she really should have expected the silent treatment from the start. Louise wondered how many of the students present complained to the headmaster and said she should be expelled. Louise decided she didn't particularly care since she was still here. She also figured that the silent treatment was ultimately a good thing, since it meant she and Elle could take their seats in the back with no commotion.

The lesson itself was rather simple that day. A recap of the basics of magical theory, going over the five elements and their significance, some finer details about the elements usage, the usual stuff Louise had long since memorized. Louise noticed Elle paying close attention to the lesson and idly began wondering why. Even if she'd been a sellsword for several years she still should have been raised a Vallière and magic theory had been a core part of her early learning. Perhaps she was just eager to receive a proper education after living a mercenary's life for a while? Louise figured that explanation made sense, until she noticed Elle getting restless and start fidgeting about in her seat.

"Is there a problem?" Louise whispered.

"I thought it'd be smart to brush back up on this stuff since I haven't had to think about it in like half a decade, but I got the gist of it pretty quickly," Elle replied, keeping her voice low. "Turns out I remember it pretty well, but that means now I'm just kind of bored."

"Well, you'll have to deal with it," Louise said as she looked over her notes.

Elle frowned, but then came up with an idea that caused her to perk up.

"Can I borrow some paper?"

"Planning on taking some notes?" Louise asked, sliding some paper and a pencil to her familiar.

"No, just going to draw to pass the time," Elle said as she took the paper and started sketching.

"You draw?" Louise asked, very surprised at her familiar's hobby.

"A little. I started a while back so I could… well, it's a long story, remind me to tell you later," Elle replied as she continued on her sketch of what looked like some kind of inn.

 _"Just another difference I suppose,"_ Louise idly thought to herself as she tried to draw a little house in the margins of her paper. At least, it could have been a building. Maybe. Louise looked at the crooked object and sighed.

"Ms. Vallière, is there a problem with my lesson?" the teacher, Mrs. Chevreuse, called out. "You seem displeased."

"H-huh? No of course not! I was just… thinking about something else!" Louise was unimpressed with her excuse.

"Well if you have the time to think about something else, then surely that means you've already learned all there is to know about transmutation magic, correct? Care to demonstrate?" Mrs. Chevreuse asked, gesturing to the pebbles she had on her desk.

"O-Of course!" Louise proudly stated as she stood up from her seat.

"You sure it won't just blow up like usual, Zero?" One of the students asked her.

"Of course it won't, I managed to summon a familiar so clearly I'm not a zero anymore!" Louise defended herself.

"Yeah, and your familiar blew up a courtyard's worth of students, so I'm not sure you should be thinking about _not_ blowing anything up just yet!" the student countered.

Elle briefly raised her head when she heard herself mentioned, but once she realized they weren't actually talking about her she went back to drawing. She was having a hard enough time getting the tiling on the roof correct, she didn't need these people distracting her.

"Just watch," Louise declared as she approached the pebbles on the teacher's desk. "Even I can be a proper mage."

* * *

Nurse Evelyn gave a hearty stretch and a sigh of relief. She'd finally managed to finish up all the paperwork and reports on all the students she had to treat as a result of yesterday's incident. She didn't know why exactly the staff wanted a detailed report of every single student she had to treat, why she had to treat them, what she did to treat them and so on, but oh well, that was the job. Not that that stopped her from complaining. She wasn't even supposed to be here this week, but the other nurse was on maternity leave.

"You just had to offer to cover for her, didn't you Evelyn? Well, too late now, where was I?" she asked herself as she looked around for her book. She picked it up and flipped to the page she had marked.

 ** _BOOOOOOOOM_**

"Oh for the love of-" Evelyn grumbled as she put her book down. "That better be the only one this time, that was far nastier than usual."

The nurse sat in her chair, waiting for her patient that was surely going to show up any minute. Sure enough, not long after the explosion, the door to the nurse's office was kicked open and Elle came in carrying her master.

"Her again, huh? Lay her down over here," Evelyn said, gesturing to one of the cots. Elle walked over and laid the unconscious Louise on the cot. "So what happened this time, you try stabbing her again?"

"No, but um… I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention so I don't know the context," Elle admitted. "Something about transmutation? She was going to try that, but it exploded and knocked her backward. I think she hit her head on one of the desks."

Evelyn nodded and lifted Louise's head to examine the supposed wound, then examined the rest of the girl.

"The usual then. Well she's not bleeding so that's something. Probably just knocked herself out, but nothing too serious. At least on that front. That certainly sounded like one of her biggest booms yet, and the evidence is backing that up. Poor girl broke some ribs again. Twice in a week, that's new. Well, certainly nothing a cheap potion can't fix up."

Elle nodded, pulled a chair next to Louise's cot and sat down. Evelyn began poking through her cupboards and eventually found the concoction she was looking for.

"So you're the familiar, huh?" Evelyn asked as she got the vial ready for her patient.

"I am," Elle replied.

"That's unusual."

"So I hear."

Silence. Evelyn wasn't much one for conversation, and Elle didn't know what to say to her.

"So… what were you reading?" Elle asked, nodding towards the book on the nurse's desk.

"Hm? Oh that. Gimme a moment," Evelyn said as she poured the potion into Louise's mouth. "Do it like that aaaaaaand… looking good. She should be up in like fifteen minutes. Probably less. Anyway, I was just reading up on some old legends and stuff. Here."

Evelyn tossed the book toward Elle who caught it. She looked at the title and frowned.

" _'Mysteries of the Void: Everything we Know About The Founder's Magic'_? A book on Void Magic? What's it even talk about?" Elle asked as she leafed through the pages.

"Wouldn't you know it, it's pretty much nothing," Evelyn says as she starts taking inventory of her remaining potions. "Turns out there's not a lot of reliable info about a magic that was last seen like three weeks ago or whatever."

"Wasn't it six millennia?" Elle wondered. She remember that much about void magic, if nothing else. "That's when Brimir was alive, and he was the only known Void mage."

"Yeah, millennia, whatever," Evelyn said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I figured if I'm stuck here I might as well do some learning in my downtime and I figured there'd be some interesting stuff to learn about Void magic. Turns out it's just a bunch of crackpot theories and unsubstantiated guesswork about what Void magic could do, what Brimir had as a familiar, that kind of nonsense. Should have brought a medical book, I could at least brush up on some actual nursing know-how. Speaking of, how'd those bandages treat you?"

"Good enough," Elle replied as she rubbed at where her cuts used to be. "I heal quick."

"So's this one," the nurse said with a nod towards Louise. "Though even that has its limits with possible concussions and broken ribs. Should be up in the ten to fifteen minute range. You don't need to stay here for that, you head off now. Go on, shoo."

"… Okay then," Elle said as she stood up. "Here's your book back. Thank you for taking care of her."

"Yeah, yeah, scram," Evelyn said, taking the book back.

Elle gave a small bow before heading out of the clinic. Evelyn gave another weary sigh and sank down into her chair. She decided to read her book to pass some time until Louise woke up. She flipped the pages about randomly before settling on the section about the Founder's possible familiars.

* * *

Without Louise there to tell her what class was next and where it actually was, Elle was left at a loss regarding what to do. She didn't know anyone here, nor did she actually know where anything was, so as a result she just kind of wandered about for a bit. She could go back to Louise's room and finish the drawing she was working on, but she wasn't keen on the idea of just shutting herself up like that.

Elle poked at her own bicep, then hopped in place a few times and delivered a few quick punches.

"Hmm… Should probably train a little," she said to herself. "Don't want to fall too far out of practice."

"If you're planning on swinging that sword of yours about, I'd recommend staying out of the courtyard today."

Elle turned towards the voice and saw Kirche approaching her.

"Oh. Hello again," Elle said with a small wave. "Is there any particular reason or…?"

"Next period is when they scheduled the make-up familiar summonings," Kirche explained, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I was on my way there right now, as a matter of fact."

"I see. Um… If you're looking for Louise she's out cold," Elle pointed towards the nurse's office. "Blew herself up. Again, from what I understand."

"I'm sure. Happens often enough to not be a surprise. Well, I wasn't here to talk to her or shake you down or anything, I just saw you and thought I'd let you know to probably stay out of the courtyard for the next hour or two. I don't think the crowd that's left would feel comfortable with you hanging around there."

"Makes sense. I hope your summoning goes well," Elle wished Kirche luck.

"Well, it'll be hard to make a bigger splash than you did, but we'll see what I can manage," Kirche replied with a smirk.

"Right," Elle quietly responds. "Um… I did apologize to her yesterday. For the uh… losing my temper thing."

"Really? Good for you," Kirche said, still smirking but her voice showing little emotion.

"Yeah, so… uh… bye."

Elle gave a quick bow of her head before fleeing to Louise's room. Once inside, Elle gave both her cheeks a good slap.

"What the hell was that, Louise?" She asked herself. "Pathetic, pathetic! Pull yourself together, you're better than this. Screw it, I need something to punch for a bit, clear my head."

Elle grabbed a pillow off the bed and hung it from the celing using a blanket as a rope. She nodded at her makeshift punching bag with satisfaction, then began smacking it around. She would have preferred some sword practice, but that seemed ill-advised in a room this crowded. Elle continued punching the pillow for the next while, noting that it was a bit too light for her tastes, until she heard the door open. She turned and saw Louise walk into the room looking rather dejected.

"Oh, you're up," Elle said, turning her attention back to the hanging pillow.

"What are you doing?" Louise asked as she watched her familiar smack the pillow around.

"I'd say training, but this isn't really doing much for me so I guess I'll say I'm killing time," Elle responded. She gave one last good smack to the pillow that knocked it free of its loosely tied rope and sent it flying into the wall. "I was going to head to the courtyard and practice some swordplay but they're apparently finishing up the familiar summonings so I thought it'd be best to stay here until it finishes up."

"I see," Louise said as she walked over to her bed and threw herself on top of it.

"Rough day?"

"Just the usual," Louise mumbled into her bed. "I know it was stupid to think this, but  
I really hoped that summoning you was at least some kind of sign that I could do proper magic now."

"You're talking to the wrong person if you want some kind of consolation about that," Elle said, picking the pillow up off the floor. "I've got the exact same problem and even less drive to fix it."

Louise groaned and rolled over onto her back.

"Well, you being here at all means I'm not completely impotent when it comes to magic, right?" Louise asked.

"I don't know how else I'd have gotten here," Elle responded with a nod of her head.

"So there's clearly _something_ there, I just need to figure out what it was and how to get it back!" Louise declared as she sits up.

"If you're trying to get that back, wouldn't you just wind up summoning even more Louises?" Elle asked with a tilt of her head.

"Silence, you," Louise glared at her familiar. "You know what I meant. Anyway, there may not be a class, but I have some classwork and reports to do so I'll head to the library and take care of those."

Louise gets up and walks over to her desk to pick up her materials.

"Want me to come too? Just in case?"

"I highly doubt I'd ever manage to blow anything up just by reading a book or two," Louise assured her. "You can stay here. Actually, I'd like you to start putting together a list. Tomorrow's a day off, we can head into town and get some shopping done."

"Understood," Elle said with a salute. "What kind of budget are we looking at?"

"Try to keep costs low. I may be a noble, but that doesn't mean I get all the money in the world to spend."

"Got it. Enjoy your library visit, Louise."

Louise nodded and headed out the door. Once she was gone Elle sat down at the desk and began writing up a grocery list. While she was writing the list she smiled to herself.

"I wonder if the town's anything like I remember it? Probably not, it would have been a pretty long time. Ooh! I wonder if that café Cattleya and Eleonore took me to is still there? We'll have to swing by and check."

Elle spent the rest of her free time working on her checklist. It occurred to her that she hadn't been this excited about an outing in a very, very long time. She could scarcely wait until tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The next day, Elle and Louise borrowed a horse from the academy's stables and rode to the closest town. It was a relatively short ride to town and once there, Louise hitched the horse and they disembarked. Louise made sure she had her wand and coin purse, and Elle made sure her sword was securely strapped to her waist and her knife was in her jacket's holster. Once both were set, they entered the town.

"Wow, a lot of people are out today," Elle noted as she and Louise walked about. "Any reason? Festival or something?"

"I don't think so, I think it's just people taking the weekend to do their shopping," Louise replied. "Anyway, keep focused. We're not here to fool around, we're here on errands."

"Fiiiiine," Elle said with a pout, putting her hands behind her head. "So where first?"

"You're the one with the list, aren't you? What did you write down?"

Elle reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the list she came up with the night before.

"Let's see… Well, most stuff I would put on a list like this, like food and other assorted groceries, we don't need to get since that stuff is provided by the academy. So other than that it's really just finding an outfitters to buy some clothes for me, and then finding a blacksmith."

Louise nodded her head.

"Sounds goo- wait. Blacksmith? Why a blacksmith?"

"Well, if I ever need any equipment I'm going to need to know where the nearest blacksmith is, right?" Elle asked.

"But you already have a sword, and don't you also still have that knife?"

"I _had_ five knives, but I'm probably not getting those other four back," Elle looked off to the side and pouted. "Don't know why the staff bothered confiscating them. I wasn't going to use them on anyone at the academy."

"So you just want to buy more knives?" Louise was confused.

"What? No! … Well, yes, but not today!" Elle admitted. "Mostly I want to know where to go if I ever need to get my sword fixed or if I need a replacement. I can't exactly do much without a sword, right?"

"I see," Louise said with a nod. "That makes sense. I'm sure we can fit in a trip to the blacksmith, but we're not buying anything today. We're just going to evaluate their prices. Need I remind you, I'm not made of money."

"And a good sword is expensive, that's why I try to keep up on the upkeep," Elle said proudly before she deflated completely. "Not that upkeep matters at all when the sword just gets snapped in half anyway."

"Speaking from experience?"

"Too many experiences to count," Elle confirmed with a sad sigh. "I miss Aeon. And Iconoclast. and Last Testament. They deserved so much better."

Louise didn't know what and of those names were, but from the context she figured they was probably weapons Elle was particularly fond of that were no longer around. Louise decided it might be in her best interests to not open that can of worms, so she didn't bother asking for more details.

"In any case, let's see if we can find the blacksmith first," Louise decided. "It wouldn't do for use to buy you new clothes only for you to dirty them with oil and soot and whatever's floating about at a smith."

"Works for me."

So the two began walking through the town to see if there was a smith or weapons shop in town. After stopping thrice to ask for directions, they were eventually pointed in the direction of a recently opened establishment. A few minutes of wandering about later, they finally arrived.

"'Scarlet Smithing grand opening, half off for the first week,' huh?" Elle read the sign on the front of the shop. "Maybe they'll have some cheap replacements after all."

"No harm in checking," Louise said as she approached the door. She opened it up and she and Elle stepped inside. There they found rows and rows of weapons lining the walls. Swords, axes, lances, knives, spiked gauntlets, chain whips, every item Louise could think of as a weapon seemed to be somewhere on this shop's walls. The only thing missing was a shop owner. Or really, any employees at all. The shop was empty of anyone except Louise and her familiar. There was a doorway on the back wall that appeared to lead further into the shop, but above the doorway was a sign that read "employees only."

"Hello?" Louise called out, hoping to attract someone's attention. "We were told this was a weapon's shop?"

"One moment!" a female voice called out from beyond the doorway. "Working on something, can't leave it alone. Feel free to check the inventory, and don't steal anything."

"… Alright then," Elle said with a shrug before starting to inspect the weapons.

Louise began browsing the wares, but she wasn't really sure what she'd be looking for. She didn't know the first thing about weaponry, so all she could really comment on was how shiny some of them were. They were well polished and taken care of, and some of them had rather intricate engravings. They were rather pleasing to look at, in a way.

"It's pretty, but completely useless," Elle said, noticing Louise's interest. "It's not like it makes the weapon worse, the sword doesn't get any less sharp because there's a dragon on the hilt or whatever, but it's really just a luxury."

"Considering you can't even afford new clothes I imagine you never had any personalized weapons."

"… No," Elle pouted some more. "Just whatever we could get our hands on, really. We sometimes got some really good stuff, but it never lasted very long. Hmm…"

"Anything that's catching your eye?" Louise wondered.

"Kind of. I wasn't the weapons guy so I'm not capable of divining a weapon's history and value with a glance, but I can figure a couple things out," Elle explained as she picked a sword off the wall.

Elle swung the sword around before pausing to examine the blade. She ran a finger along the edge of the blade and then nodded.

"Not bad," Elle said with a nod. "Feels pretty well balanced, good edge to it. Not bad, not bad."

"Why thank you."

"Woah!" Elle jumped back, startled by the sudden appearance of the shop owner.

"Sorry, I move quietly apparently, because I spook a lot of people that way," she apologized. "Anyway, I'm Scarlet, owner and lead smithy of Scarlet Smithing. What can I do for you today, looking for a new weapon or maintenance on an existing one?"

"You're the smith here?" Louise was surprised. The image she had of a blacksmith was of an older, burlier man hammering away at an anvil. In front of her was a petite blonde women with her hair tied off on the side. Louise figured she couldn't have been any older than Eleonore or Cattleya, and neither of them were in the age range Louise would have guessed most smiths were at. "You're not what I was expecting at all."

"A little earth magic and anyone can be a smith these days," Scarlet said with a shrug. "If you were expecting a more muscled person those are common among the commoner smiths since they can't just magic a sword together. But I digress. What are you looking for today?"

"Not looking for anything in particular, just browsing," Elle said as she put the sword back on the wall.

"Yes my… bodyguard is a new hire and was wondering where she should go to get new equipment should she need it," Louise decided to hide that Elle was her familiar to avoid any unnecessary complications.

"Is that so? And this is the standard grade of your 'equipment' is it?" Scarlet said, looking over Elle's sword.

"What the-" Elle checked her sheathe and found it empty. "How did you-"

"Sorry, sorry," Scarlet said, turning the sword over and examining it from every angle. "Just want to get an idea of who I'm dealing with here. Aside from the sword, what kind of equipment are you looking at?"

"… Bombs and throwing knives," Elle replied cautiously. She took the knife out of her jacket holster and showed it to Scarlet. "Something like this."

"Is that so? Hmmm… Well, we have some options available, but what kind of budget are we looking at? Need to know what range I have to work with."

Louise was about to answer honestly, but caught herself. First rule of shopping was to never show your whole hand to start with. If you told the smith how much she actually had, the smith would likely try to sell her the most expensive option they had, no matter how useful it'd be for them. Louise didn't have much haggling experience, but she figured there was no harm in pressing her luck. She currently had 5 gold coins and a few silver coins, so she'd start low.

"At the moment all I have is two gold coins," Louise answered.

Scarlet looked at her for a moment, as if trying to pull some kind of information out of the air, then she nodded.

"Five gold and some silver, right?"

"What the-" Louise patted her pocket to make sure the smith hadn't swiped her coin purse the same way she swiped Elle's sword. The fact that it was still in her pocket, untouched, confused Louise even more. "How did you-"

"Coins are made by the royal alchemists up in the castle, right?" Scarlet interrupted. "The coins from there have a certain kind of magical signature that marks them as legitimate. Typically a merchant has a specially designed scope that can analyze a coin and determine if the magic energy on it is legitimate, but a good enough merchant can feel that without needing such a tool. As a bonus, it lets you gauge how much the customers you're talking to have so you know what kind of deals to offer."

"That's impossible, you can't 'feel' magical energy," Louise said. "Magic is just a mage's internal willpower mixed with the mana in the air, there's no 'signature' left over."

"Is that so? Well, news to me," Scarlet said with a shrug, not seeming too perturbed by Louse's counterargument. "Anyway, let me think. Mmmm… I can't offer any bombs since I don't know how to make those, but throwing knives are doable. Miss Bodyguard, how many throwing knives were you looking for?"

"Four, if possible," Elle said, hoping for cheap replacements for the knives she lost.

"Alright. Since you two are the first customers I've had since I opened this story yesterday, I've got a couple of deals for you. I can offer a set of throwing knives and a little tune up on the sword for one gold coin, or we can junk your current sword and replace it with a new one for three gold, with the knives thrown in as a bonus. Actually, I'll make it two gold if you let me keep your current sword. A kind of trade in deal, of sorts. Sound good?"

"One moment, please," Elle said as she pulled Louise into a huddle. "What do you think?"

"I don't know anything about weapons so I have no idea if that'd be a good deal or not," Louise admitted. "Is a new sword for two or three gold any good?"

"It's pretty incredible," Elle told her in an excited whisper. "Which is why it's suspicious. A solid sword can rune up to 10 or even 20 gold. And that's just an okay sword, not even an amazing one."

"How about we ask her what sword we'd get for that deal, you know enough to know if we'd be getting scammed, right?"

"Sounds good," Elle said, breaking off the huddle and turning to the blacksmith. "Ms. Smith-"

"Scarlet. I don't like Ms. and Smith isn't my family name."

"Scarlet, what sword are you offering for that second deal? Two gold is a stupidly low cost for even a halfway decent sword, let alone a good one."

"What... sword?" Scarlet seemed confused by the question. "I was just going to let you pick a sword you liked off the shelf, but I can pick something out, I guess."

 _"… Goddammit!"_ Elle mentally kicked herself. _"She's got no business sense and we just ruined a great opportunity!_ "

"Let's see… You're somewhat on the smaller side so a longsword would be awkward to use, and your arms are kind of thin so that tells me you don't like to use particularly heavy weaponry so… Do you have any preferences to if the sword is magically enhanced or not? Wait, no, that's no good. I only have one of those and that's a special order. How about this one?"

Scarlet picked a sword off the shelf. It was a plain sword with a rounded pommel and some black leather straps wrapped around the hilt. Scarlet handed the sword to Elle, who examined the blade. She ran a finger along the flat of the blade, then gave it a few practice swings to test how it felt. A few slashes, some quick thrusts and one final flourish gave Elle all the information she needed.

"Louise."

"Yes?"

"I want it."

"Is that so?" Scarlet asked. "So it was to your liking?"

"Very much so," Elle said with an enthusiastic nod.

"I suppose we'll take it then," Louise said with a sigh as she got her coin purse ready. "Two gold for that and the knives then, right?"

"Yep. Thank you very much, now just give me a moment and I'll go get your purchases ready," Scarlet said, accepting the gold coins Louise handed to her before disappearing through the doorway into the back of the store. Seconds later she returned with the throwing knives as well as the sheathe for the new sword. "Here you are, and thank you for this pretty little junker."

"No problem, I'm not gonna miss it," Elle said. "Make sure you melt it down and turn it off something worthwhile, okay?"

"Can do," Scarlet nodded, examining Elle's old sword. "Anyway, I make more than just weapons you know, so feel free to come back again."

"We'll keep that in mind, thank you very much Ms. Scarlet," Elle said with a bow of her head.

"You sure seem happy. Is it really that good of a sword?" Louise asked, slightly off-put by how enthusiastic Elle was about the purchase.

"It's a sword that's good enough and that's good enough for me," Elle said with a smile. "You have no idea how much I hated that sword I had before. Wasn't even my sword, I stole it off one of those thugs that was chasing me around before you summoned me. My previous one got snapped in half and all I had were the knives and the bomb until he graciously donated his weapon to me. It was just terrible, the man took no care of the sword so it was in piss poor shape, and even if he had, it was made for someone like twice as large as I am so it just felt terrible using it. It's so good having a sword that actually feels like it could be mine."

"I guess I know the feeling," Louise nodded in understanding. "It's like the times I borrowed Eleonore or Cattleya's wand before I had my own. It just felt weird using someone else's, nothing like when I got my own."

"Nothing quite like personalized items," Elle said with a smile. "So, that's one thing done, clothes now, right?"

"Right, and much as I'd prefer to outfit you with clothing befitting of our family name, I don't have that kind of money right now," Louise said, counting what was left of her coins.

"Even with that deal we got?" Elle asked, surprised. "You've got like three gold left, is that not enough for some clothes?"

"Well, not so much that, even if we hadn't bought the sword we wouldn't be able to get what I had in mind," Louise admitted. "The Vallières are a distinguished name, and those of its name should dress accordingly. But, again, much as I'd love to dress you in formal wear befitting of our status, the kind of dresses I have in mind can cost upwards of 40 gold."

"F-forty?! What a rip off!" Elle cried.

"… Yes, I know," Louise said, not really wanting to admit to how much of a scam those dresses were. "Nobility has money to spend, so people charge accordingly. Luckily, I have a backup plan."

"Oh? Do tell."

"At the academy, there's plenty of students, which means plenty of gossip," Louise began her lecture. "Most of it is pretty banal minutiae, relationship stories, complaints about teachers, ways to cheat on the next test, and so on. Sometimes, however, you hear something pretty useful, such as places that sell goods for rather cheap."

"Like a cheap clothing store?"

"Well, since I never needed to wear much besides my academy uniform I listened more for places with discounts on books, potion ingredients and things like that," Louise said with a shrug. "But yes, I also heard about a few inexpensive outfitters that should work well. Even with just three gold coins we should be able to buy a week's worth of outfits for you. Or at least enough that we won't have you wearing the same thing multiple days in a row."

"Works for me. Do you even know where we're going?"

"I've a good enough idea. Follow me, familiar."

And so, after asking for direction a total of six times, Louise and Elle finally found the outfitters they were looking for. Once inside they began examining all the various outfits and combinations of clothing available.

"Hmmm… What about this one?" Louise asked, pulling a black sundress and showing it to Elle.

"Hmmm… I like it. I like it a lot. Let's see, oh! What about this one? A little frilly, but it's a good shirt, don't you think?"

"It's quite nice, definitely. I think I saw a hat that went pretty well with it over here."

"I don't know, I think these pants are a little too flashy."

"Definitely, they flare out too much at the bottom. Maybe it they were just a touch more casual it'd be fine but…"

"Wait, maybe we've got it wrong. Get that shirt from earlier, the one with the tassels."

"Oh I love the way you think!"

"I just saying Louise, I don't know how much I'd like that jacket."

"Please tell me it's not just because it doesn't have holsters for your knives."

"Knife holsters are a real pain to sew on!"

"It's a good dress, but I dunno, it seems a bit too… formal."

"It's certainly a dress you could wear to a fancy party, but I think it's casual enough to use as everyday wear if you wanted too."

"It's light enough to not be too hot during summer days, but I don't know if 'light' and 'casual' are the same."

"That does remind me, we're probably going to need to find some heavier clothes for you too. It's spring now, but you'll presumably be around for winter, so you'll need some winter clothing."

"That's right. Hmmm… I see some good stuff over there, let's check that out."

"Maybe these hats'll work. … Nope, too obvious."

"Founder, don't tell me we'll need to keep that ratty jacket of yours if we want to hide you."

"Looking like it. Wait, don't nobility cloaks or whatever they're called come in hooded variants?"

"Are you sure? It wouldn't have any knife holsters on it."

"Hilarious."

After several hours of debates and inventory browsing, Louise and Elle finally decided on which clothes they were to buy for the familiar.

"Finally done," Louise said, examining their haul. "What's the matter? You don't look pleased."

"I just realized something."

"What would that be?"

"I can't wear dresses or skirts," Elle declared.

"… Is that some kind of weird quirk or-"

"No, no, it's just… well you saw me fight, lots of running, jumping and stuff," Elle sheepishly explained. "That doesn't really work with a skirt. Unless you want me to flash my underwear to everyone I fight."

"Of course not!" Louise declared, her face flaring up in embarrassment. "Even disregarding the fact that you flaunting your underwear would be tantamount to me doing the same, it's improper for a servant of nobility to engage in such decorum."

"… You could have just said you'd be embarrassed by it, you don't need to be _that_ formal," Elle said."

"Silence, you," Louise said, still blushing. "Let's just put the dresses and skirts away. We didn't pick up that many, did we?"

"We only picked out dresses and outfits with skirts."

There was a brief silence between the two.

"God damn it," Elle cursed.

Many more hours later, Louise and Elle finally got the clothing situation sorted. Elle looked at the full length mirror and took in her new outfit. Nothing fancy, just a white, button up short sleeved shirt, paired with black pants and brown shoes. A simple affair that could almost pass for the academy uniform if not for the lack of a cloak. Elle didn't wear her jacket with this outfit and though she initially wondered if she should in order to hide her face, Louise assured her that it was unlikely anyone in town would assume they were anything other than twins. Elle didn't particularly want to risk the chance of someone from the academy also being in town and noticing, but it was quite hot out and she was thankful for the chance to wear a somewhat cooler outfit. The jacket, as well as the clothes they bought, were put into bags so the two had an easy time carrying them around.

"Well that was a pain," Elle said, loving the fact that she could actually feel the breeze on her arms.

"It was my fault for getting carried away," Louise replied with a sigh. "I should have known from the start that getting you any type of dress was a poor choice."

"I forgot too, so we can share the blame there," Elle compromised. "Anyway, that's our grocery list done, what next, back to the academy? I'd like to hang around town for a bit longer if possible. If we head back I need to put the jacket back on and it's too hot for that."

"Fair enough. We spent enough time in that store that it's around lunchtime," Louise said as she began looking around for a suitable establishment. "Let's see… Where do we get lunch in town?"

Elle absentmindedly looked around, not really caring where Louise picked out. After all, her other self knew this town better than she did, so whatever place she picked out would likely be perfectly fine. While looking around Elle saw a fountain sitting in the middle of the plaza. It looked somewhat familiar to her and she began wondering where she saw it before. It took only a minute for her to place it, and the realization made her gasp.

"Elle? What's wrong?" Louise was confused by her familiar's outburst.

"I know where we can go!" Elle said excitedly.

"Really? You've been here before?" Louise felt rather dumb after that sentence. Considering they were the same person, _of course_ her familiar had been to this town before, right? Louise had been here many a time, so it stood to reason Elle had as well. The idea just hadn't seemed to occur to Louise until now.

"Once, a long time ago," Elle said, her excitement growing to the point she was nearly bouncing in place. "There was a cafe we went to that I was hoping I could go to again but never got the chance. Don't know if it's still there but it should be, right?"

Elle didn't wait for an answer before she took off running to try and find it.

"W-wait!" Louise cried out as she began running after her familiar. "Do you even know where we're going?!"

"I've a good enough idea!" Elle yelled back. "Follow me, master!"

Elle slowed down a few times to try and remember which way to sprint, but she never lost track of where she was going. She ran around a corner and into another intersection and her face lit up when she found what she was looking for.

"Louise, look! It's still there!" Elle cried out excitedly, pointing at the café.

"What… whew… what's still there?" Louise was annoyed that the sprint that completely drained her seemed to barely affect her familiar. She figured life as a sellsword must have done wonders for Elle's stamina.

"The café I told you about! I'll go get us some seats!"

"W-wait! Don't go running again!" Louise called out as she tried to catch up to Elle.

Elle was able to secure a table for the two of them out on the café's patio. Louise figured it was a nice enough day out that an outdoor meal wasn't a terrible idea.

"Any particular reason you wanted this café in particular?" Louise asked before taking a sip of the water their waitress had brought them.

"Well, it's one I've been to before," Elle began her explanation as she looked over the menu. "So just that is good enough for me mostly, but I have a pretty good memory from this place."

"Really?" Louise asked. She couldn't remember anything specific about this place, so she was curious as to why her familiar seemed to hold it in such high regard. "What would that be?"

"It's a café I visited with Cattleya and Eleonore oh… six years ago? Yeah six years ago. Eleonore needed some supplies in town for her research and me and Cattleya managed to convince her to let us tag along. I can't remember how, I think it had something to do with not wanting to be at home on our own because Mom and Dad were off on some political matter of something. I just remember it took some work to convince Eleonore to let Cattleya out of the house considering how weak her body is, but thankfully it was a good day for her so we didn't run into too much trouble there. The fresh air was good for her, I like to think."

"She does always seem a bit brighter whenever she gets to go somewhere outside our house," Louise agreed with a nod.

"We walked around for a while trying to find what Eleonore was looking for, can't remember what it was. Doesn't matter since she never found it. She was super mad for a bit, that close to throwing a complete tantrum, but she barely managed to hold herself together. She tried to play it off as her just being a bit out of it from being hungry so we decided to stop somewhere and get some food before heading home. This is where we stopped by, so I figured 'Hey, first time I've been here in six years, it'd be nice to see it again."

"Well, it's nice that you're able to experience it again, I suppose," Louise said with a sip of her water.

"Yeah, it really is," Elle said with a satisfied sigh.

At that, Louise resumed thinking. While Elle was telling her story she slowly started to remember bits and pieces of it herself. She could vaguely recall Eleonore often going off on her own in search of something for her academic papers and how she often pestered her older sister to let her come along so she could learn something too. Cattleya had come along a few times, but not often. While they weren't unpleasant memories for Louise in any way, Louise wasn't sure they left enough of an impact to warrant such loving remembrance in the way Elle had seemed to hold them.

 _"How odd,"_ Louise thought, finally taking a look at the menu herself. "What were you thinking of having?"

Before Elle could answer, the waitress came over to ask the exact same question.

"I think I'll try… this, the tomato soup, please," Elle said after a moment's thought.

"Okay then, and your sister here?" the waitress asked, turning to Louise.

"Hmm… I don't know. Elle, you know what I like, what do you think sounds best?" Louise asked, unsure of what to order.

"She'll haaaaaaave… Ooh! How about the chicken soup?"

"That sounds fine," Louise said with a nod. They waitress took their orders and went to pass them along to the chef. Once she was gone Elle started chuckling. "What's so funny?"

"She actually thought we were sisters," Elle said with a smile.

"Most people aren't naturally going to assume that two identical strangers are actually two alternates of the same person," Louise responded, giving her familiar a flat look.

"I know, I know. It's just funny to me," Elle said before her smile dropped and her expression became more unsure. "So… um… speaking of, how… how is everyone, by the by?"

"Everyone? You mean my- sorry, our family?"

"Yeah," Elle said with a quiet voice and a small nod.

"Why do you seem so nervous?"

"No reason," Elle lied.

"Right," Louise saw right through the lie, but chose not to press the issue. "You said you went out with Cattleya and Eleonore to this cafe six years ago, so I'm assuming you mean how everyone has been doing in that period between then and now. Unfortunately you'll likely be disappointed to hear that your family from that time seems quite the same as my family from that time, and little has changed since then. Father is still as busy as always dealing with other nobles and various politics I have no patience for. He doesn't have the patience for it either, but he's far too well known to just ignore those matters, and someone has to deal with it so it might as well be him. Mother is always dealing with some kind of knightly business even though she's been retired for years, though it's normally just coaching and asking her opinion on various military matters. She always comes back complaining about how this new generation seems to have no idea what they're doing and they should be more strict with those under their command. Eleonore is as bossy as she ever was, never misses a chance to make fun of me and call me 'Little Louise,' and her temper is a short as ever. She's still as passionate about her research as ever and is smart enough that people at her university complain about her constantly stealing their spotlight, which unfortunately had the side effect of swelling her ego to the size of an airship. Cattleya is still almost unnaturally kind, with the patience of a saint, and a collection of pets larger than any zoo could ever hope to have."

Elle laughed at the description of her family.

"Nothing's really changed, huh?" she said with a smile.

"No, they're the same as always," Louise returned the smile.

"That's good, that's… really comforting," Elle said, her voice trailing off to barely higher than a whisper.

"Were you worried they would have changed much?"

"Well no it's… I haven't seen them in six years so I was worried that if I met your version of the family they'd be so different that I wouldn't recognized them and the thought of that happening really scared me," Elle confessed.

"Six… Where were you that you couldn't see our family for six years?" Louise asked, very worried for her familiar.

"I…" Elle paused and sighed. "Look, it's not like I _don't_ want to tell you. I'd love to tell you, but I'm working on the 'how' to explain it. The short version is I was forcibly removed from my home six years ago and hadn't been able to get back."

Louise opened her mouth to ask a question, but Elle covered it with her hand.

"No, not kidnapped, so don't suggest it," Elle said, removing her hand to let Louise speak again.

"Well how else would you be 'forcibly removed' from somewhere?" Louise asked her familiar.

"I'll get to that, don't worry about it," Elle said, waving her hand to try and dismiss Louise's question. "Like I said, it's a weird, long story that isn't fit for out here in the open."

"That's… fair, I suppose," Louise said, disappointment obvious in her tone. "Though that does remind me about something I'd been meaning to ask. I've been wondering what you did before I summoned you."

"Haven't I mentioned I was a sellsword?" Elle asked, confused by the comment.

"Well yes, obviously, I meant more, what does a sellsword do?" Louise clarified. "I know the general idea, pay people to do your dirty work for you but surely you weren't the type to… you know… kill for money, or anything like that, right?"

"It's poor form to ask questions you don't want to know the answer to," Elle said, casting a harsh glare at Louise.

"I-I see…"

Elle held the glare for another second before bursting out laughing.

"H-Hey! What are you laughing at?" Louise asked, matching her familiar's earlier glare.

"Sorry, sorry, couldn't help myself," Elle said, her laughter starting to die down. "It was too easy. Nah, don't worry, we were usually cleaner than that. Not by a whole lot, but comparatively we were a pretty clean group."

"'We?' Who's we?"

"My group. Company. Band? Whatever," Elle said, with a wave of her hand. "I was part of a mercenary group. We were a smaller collection than most, but still did the same work. Some merc companies can be upwards of a hundred men, you know, the types of groups that are used to pad out an army's numbers. We were more 'specialized,' so we barely ever hit double digits. Sometimes we'd be asked to kill a specific target, but we also did a bunch of other assorted things. Be a noble's bodyguard at a fancy event he's going to, go treasure hunting for 'lost' magical relics, knock some street thugs down a couple of pegs, things like that. Sure, in my tenure there we wound up killing a lot of people, but way more often that that we were just doing menial tasks."

"Oh, that's much more quaint than I was expecting," Louise said, pleasantly surprised by what Elle had told her.

"Hey, you take the jobs that are available," Elle said with a shrug. "Not everyone out there needs someone dead, some just need help with other things. We just did what people payed us to do, and most people payed us to do small tasks."

"That's certainly a relief, in many ways," Louise said with a sigh of relief.

"Happy that you're not just some indiscriminate murderer?" Elle asked.

"I'm less than pleased that there's still some variant of me out there that has… has killed people before," Louise stumbled over her words a bit, remembering what Elle had almost done to her. "But it's certainly good to know that you still retain some semblance of a moral compass."

"It's rickety but it's still there," Elle confirmed with a smile and a nod.

Louise gave an unsure smile, but didn't say anything else. The conversation dead, and their soup still not having arrived, Elle began looking around, taking in the sights. Her attention drifted and she started listening in on the conversations of those around her.

"So did you hear the latest rumor from Gallia?"

"Man, that's the fifth robbery this week, isn't it?"

"I'm telling you, Brimir did not have a dragon as a familiar, that'd be dumb!"

"No I haven't, what-"

"It's the same group-"

"Now hold on, let him ramble for a-"

"I'mHaveyouheardjustsaying, ?Those'manathieves' , ,likevoidKnightorsomethinglikethatdragon!"

"Elle!"

"Huh?! What," Elle took a second to refocus herself. "What's up, Louise?"

"Our order's here," Louise said, gesturing to the soup bowl that had been placed in front of her. "Was there something wrong? You seemed distracted."

"Lost focus for a minute there, tried listening to too many conversations at once," Elle said, shaking her head to try and clear it out.

"Hear anything interesting?" Louise asked as she blew on her soup to cool it down.

"Just gossip, nothing that really meant anything to me," Elle said before taking a sip of her soup. "Ow! Hot."

"Impatient, are we? The soup's not going anywhere, you can let it cool for a minute," Louise teased her familiar.

"Shut it," Elle grumbled. She let the soup cool off and once it was cool enough for consumption, she heartily dug in.

Since the soup wasn't that large of a meal, it didn't take long for the two to finish. They washed it all down with a nice cold glass of water, and then both sighed in contentment.

"That was a wonderful meal," Louise said, dabbing at the corners of her mouth with a napkin.

"Not much of one, but what was there was good," Elle said with a smile. "Got a new sword, went clothes shopping, and finished off with a decent meal. Gotta say, you know how to treat a girl well, this has been a pretty good date."

"And I suppose you have enough experience to make a fair judgement there?" Louise asked.

"It's been a while, sure, but I'd put this up there," Elle replied.

"Oh that's go- wait. You've been on dates before?" Louise was confused.

"You haven't?" Elle was confused.

"Of course I haven't!" Louise declared.

"But why not? At the risk of sounding vain, you're pretty enough that I don't think you'd have that much a trouble dating, or at least, someone's probably asked you, right?"

"Even if we were to ignore my reputation as the Academy's 'Zero-'"

"Oh yeah, that'd probably drive some people off."

"Isn't there another more important thing that you're forgetting about?" Louise asked, giving Elle a stern look.

"If I am, I wouldn't know. I forgot it," Elle admitted.

Louise paused for a minute, waiting for Elle to remember. When it was clear it wasn't going to happen, Louise sighed. She propped her elbows on the table and clasped her hands together.

"I'm already engaged, remember? It'd be improper for me to go dating anyone," Louise tried to hide her blush behind her clasped hands.

"You're what?! When, to who?!" Elle shot to her feet in shock. She noticed the other patrons of the café looking at her and realized she was causing a bit of a scene. She quietly sat back down and tried to make herself invisible. She failed. "Engagement, huh? Give me a moment, I think it's coming back to me."

Elle rubbed her temples and began thinking hard. She tried remembering anything that could have had to do with any kind of engagement or romance, but the only thing that immediately came to mind wasn't what she was looking for. However, that thought did inadvertently bring to mind another memory. A long forgotten memory from her youth.

"Oh. Right. Viscount Wardes," Elle said, unsure what to make of the situation.

"Considering how you have supposedly been… away, shall we say, for six years, I suppose it's not unreasonable to assume you forgot," Louise said, taking a sip of her water.

"Right," Elle replied. "That's… damn, I completely forgot about that. Engagement wasn't some that was ever really on the…"

Elle trailed off, noticing something in the distance. She narrowed her eyes, trying to make out the details and make sure she wasn't mistaking the sight for something else.

"Yes?" Louise asked, noticing her familiar's gaze and wondering what she was looking at.

"Stay here, I'll be right back," Elle said as she got out of her seat. She grabbed her jacket out of the bags they had and slipped it on before running away from the café.

"H-hey! Elle, get back here!" Louise got up and started to run after her familiar, only to pause. She left the payment for the meal on the table and ran off after her familiar.

She looked around to try and track her familiar down, and eventually saw a familiar black jacket disappear into an alleyway, so she followed after it. She saw Elle at the end of the alleyway, pressing herself against the wall, so Louise jogged up to her. She opened her mouth to ask what Elle was doing here, but was stopped when she covered Louise's mouth with her hand.

"Shh," Elle said, putting a finger to her lips. She continued in a low whisper. "I'll let go of your mouth, but be quiet and take a peak."

Louise nodded, so Elle uncovered her mouth and went back to peaking around the corner. Louise quietly creeped forward just enough to see past the wall at what Elle was looking at. Standing in a small open area was three men, each wearing a cloak with the hood pulled over their head to hide their faces. Two of the men had swords strapped to their belts, and Louise recognized them as the type of swords the royal mage knights had that allowed them to cast spells as if it were a wand. The third man didn't have a sword wand, but was instead wearing a buckler on his left arm. The buckler itself seemed to be made of iron, with a cross adorning the front of the shield. The arms of the cross extended past the edges of the buckler and had runes written on them, though at this distance Louise couldn't make out what the runes said. Louise turned to Elle to ask what exactly they were looking at, but when she saw how intently Elle was looking at the men she figured it'd might be a better idea to keep silent for now.

"So this is the thing, huh? Doesn't look all that impressive," the first man said.

"Well, we won't know until we try it out, right?" the second man admonished the fist. "First let's try a small test to make sure it works."

The second man pulled out his sword wand and pointed it at the buckler. A quick chant caused a few spark to come out of the wand which flew towards the shield. Louise expected the sparks to harmlessly bounce off the iron shield, as weak sparks normally would. Instead, when the sparks floated near the shield, they began to glow, and then seemed to be absorbed into the shield. Louise's expression grew confused at the sight, while Elle grit her teeth.

"Okay, step one's good," the man holding the buckler said. "Time for the important bit."

The third man held his buckler so that it was facing towards an empty patch of ground. The air around the buckler seemed to shimmer, and suddenly a small beam of light shot out from the middle of the buckler and towards the ground. The three men grinned.

"Perfect," the first man said.

"Works like a charm," the second man agreed. "So now where are we hitting, the treasury? Some of the nearby merchant stands?"

"Does it matter where we hit?" the man with the buckler asked. "No matter where we go, or how many guards they throw at us we can kill 'em all without a problem. Stupid royal guards never learned how to deal with a problem their magic couldn't solve, so we can steal all we want and they can't do anything to stop us."

As the three men began discussing where to strike first, Louise looked at her familiar.

"Bandits?" Louise whispered to her.

"Yeah," Elle said with a nod of her head. "I tailed them because I had some questions about that shield and then I heard them talk about the job they're going to pull off."

"So what are you going to do about it?" Louise asked, wary of what her familiar's response would be.

"Don't know yet. How far away are the nearest guards?" Elle asked.

Louise thought about it for a few seconds before shaking her head.

"By the time we track any down these bandits will have started their robbery. If we're to do anything, we would need to do it now."

"We can probably knock out the three of them in relatively short order if we play this right, but are you sure you're fine with that idea?" Elle asked. "I doubt you've much combat experience."

In truth, no, Louise was not "fine with that idea." Bandits and all others of the criminal persuasion were so far removed from her realm of expertise that she never even considered that she'd one day have to deal with them. While she entertained the idea of becoming an adventurer when she was younger, not unlike her mother, it was an idea Louise gave up on rather quickly. She resigned herself to the idea that the most criminal activity she'd deal with would be corrupt nobility accepting bribes and other political underhandedness. Her time at the academy had, of course, done little to prepare her for direct combat, it was more about magical theory and such. However, what the academy and her upbringing had taught her was that she was a noble, and the nobility had a duty to uphold.

"As a noble I cannot knowingly stand by and let them do as they please," Louise declared. "I can't fight like you, but I refuse to let them possibly harm innocents because of their greed."

"Music to my ears," Elle said with a grin. "Okay, full briefing, that shield is called the Aegis, it's a magical relic that absorbs mana from spells and fires them in a concentrated burst. What you saw it do isn't too scary, but when charged enough it's pretty frightening. That said, our explosions don't leave enough behind for it to take anything."

Louise nodded in understanding and looked at the three bandits, trying to measure the distance between the men.

"If I aim one right in the middle of their group I should be able to disorient all three, which will give you a chance to ambush them."

"Perfect. After that, focus on support, don't try to actually take any of them out," Elle warned Louise. "Our explosions are hard to really manage and we don't want to do more damage than necessary. Just try to keep them off balance."

"Understood. I'd recommend aiming for the fire mage second," Louise said, pointing him out. "The two on the left are both mages, but we only know the fire mage's magic, so you should knock out the unknown mage first. Less to worry about."

"Got it," Elle said with a nod. "I'll strike him first then the fire mage. While I'm doing that, keep the Aegis wielder off me so I don't have to worry about getting hit while I'm busy with the other guys. He doesn't seem to have a weapon other than the shield so it shouldn't be too difficult to take him out."

"And even if it is, my explosion will likely draw at least some attention, so if it seems difficult, don't worry about actually knocking them out, just keep them busy until the guards arrive," Louise said.

"A backup plan, I like it. Hopefully we can wrap it up before anyone arrives, but insurance like that is always a necessity. Good thinking. Okay then, on the count of three, cast a spell and we can get this taken care of. Got it?"

"Got it," Louise said with a determined tone and a nod of her head.

"Perfect. Okay, one. Two. Three."

Louise pointed her wand at the ground in the middle of the group and tried to cast a fireball. As expected, rather than a fireball, there was an explosion where Louise pointed. The explosion knocked the three unprepared bandits on their backs, and Elle took the chance to leap into action, first aiming for the mage of unknown element. She delivered a dropkick to the man's face which sent him rolling along the ground. When Elle landed she rolled back and saw the fire mage getting to his feet. She readied a throwing knife and sent it flying into the fire mage's leg. The man screamed in pain, and Elle took advantage of the opening, driving the hilt of her sword into his stomach.

The bandit wielding the Aegis had finally began to recover at this point and moved to stood up, ready to step forward and strike Elle with his shield while she was distracted. Louise saw the man ready to approach her familiar and cast another explosion at the ground in front of him, knocking him off balance.

Elle grabbed the fire mage and then wrapped her legs around his midsection, twisting herself to bring him to the ground. Once the fire mage had been taken down, Elle turned her attention to the Aegis wielder. She ran towards him and brought her sword down in an overhead swing, which was blocked by the bandit's shield. Elle kicked at the man's leg, knocking him into a kneeling position, though he still held his shield ready to block whatever Elle's next attack might have been. Before Elle could attack again, an ominous chill came over her. Elle leapt to the side just in time, as a bolt of lightning flew past where she had been standing. Elle looked to where the bolt came from and saw the mage of previously unknown element standing, having recovered faster than she thought he would.

 _"Lightning. Wind mage, right?"_ Elle thought to herself.

"Elle, get down!" Louise called out, interrupting Elle's thoughts.

Elle hit the ground as fast as she could, narrowly dodging a beam of energy that carved through the air, as well as a nearby building. Elle looked and saw the man with the Aegis standing, looking rather proud of himself. Behind him was the fire mage who was preparing another spell to feed into the relic. Elle cursed herself as she stood up. She should have tried to end it as soon as possible instead of playing around because she had questions for them. The Aegis wielder readied another shot and fired it at the Elle, who rolled backwards to dodge the shot. The Aegis wielder charged up his next shot, and Elle readied herself for another round of keep away, but before the relic could fire its shot, the ground in front of the bandits, kicking up dust and throwing the bandit's aim off which sent the Aegis' laser off into the sky. Elle turned and saw that Louise had stepped out of the alley she had been hiding in. While Elle understood why she had done that, she was trying to help her familiar, she couldn't help but be pissed anyway.

The wind mage, now standing behind the Aegis wielder as well, prepared a spell and pointed his wand at Louise. Elle sprinted towards her master and tackled her into the alleyway just as the lightning bolt was cast. The bolt harmlessly hit the wall, while Elle tried to figure out what to do next. She could hear the hum of the Aegis being charged and new that in the alleyway they had nowhere to dodge. If she was going to do anything, it was going to have to be before they followed them into this alley.

"Louise, stay down, give me your wand, and don't watch," Elle instructed her master.

Louise hesitated for a second, not sure what to make of those instructions, but nodded and handed her wand to Elle. Elle stood up and point her wand out of the alleyway. A series of three explosions, each further away from the alley's entrance, went off, creating a smokescreen for Elle that she rushed into.

The Bandits kept their eyes on the smoke, ready for Elle to pop out at any moment. Instead of popping out a series of three knives flew out of the smoke, each aimed at one of the bandits. While the knives were easily sidestepped by the bandits, they provided the opening Elle needed. She burst out of the smoke and targeted the Aegis wielder first. She swung her sword at him, which he blocked, but as soon as the sword made contact with the shield, Elle pointed her wand at the ground and cast a small explosion. The bandit was forced back a step, and Elle stepped forward. She slipped behind the bandit and exchanged the wand in her hand for a knife. She pressed the knife against the bandit's throat, and kept his shield arm pinned by pressing the blade of her sword against bicep. It wasn't a particularly effective hold, but it did its job of keeping him still. The two mages had their sword wands pointed at Elle, waiting for her next move so they could fry her. Elle made her move and with a flourish too fast for the mages to immediately react to, she severed the Aegis wielder's arm and delivered a quick to his back that sent him face first into the ground. The bandits fired the spells they had prepared, but Elle grabbed the arm the Aegis was attached to before it could hit the ground and held the shield up, absorbing the two spells aimed at her. A quick blast from the Aegis blew the fire mage's leg off, and Elle no longer had to worry about him. Elle removed the bandit's arm from the straps on the back of the Aegis and slipper her arm in, feeling a small bit of joy from the familiar weight of the buckler. The wind mage, his options running out had no choice but to prepare another lightning bolt. He knew it was a fruitless endeavor, but didn't know what else to do here. Elle didn't even give him a chance to cast the spell as she closed the distance between them in a flash. She grabbed his sword hand and rammed the Aegis into his elbow, breaking his arm and making him drop his sword wand. Elle knelt down and slashed at his ankle with her sword, and the wound made the wind mage fall, no longer able to stand. Elle got up and saw the bandit who originally had the Aegis pull himself into a standing position. He pulled out a pistol with his remaining arm, pointed it at Elle's head and pulled the trigger. Elle tilted her head to the side, causing the bullet to miss, though just barely as it still grazed her cheek. Frustrated that he had failed to kill her, the bandit pulled out a knife and changed at Elle. He swung at her, and Elle easily parried the swipe with the Aegis. She swept his legs out from under him and before he could hit the ground Elle slammed the face of the Aegis into his head as hard as she could, knocking him out before he even hit the concrete. Seeing that the fire mage was attempting to crawl away, Elle took aim and tossed the Aegis at him, sending it spinning through the air like a frisbee. It collided with his head, knocking him out, and bounced into the air. The buckler landed on its side and proceeded to roll back to Elle, who calmly dusted it off as she picked it up. The battle over, Elle surveyed the damage.

 _"Well… they probably won't die,"_ she thought as she looked at their wounds. "More importantly, what are you doing here in Halkeginia, little shield?"

Before the shield could give her a proper answer, Elle heard approaching footsteps and readied she sword, in case any more bandits were waiting in the wings. Instead of bandits, a trio of armored guards showed up. Elle allowed herself to relax, which proved to be a terrible idea as the guards unsheathed their sword and pointed them at her.

"Woah, hey, careful there!" Elle said, raising her hands above her head. "What seems to be the problem sir?"

"The problem is that there were reports of a commotion in the alleys, and what do we find when we arrive but you and three dead bodies?" The center guard asks.

"They're not dead yet!" Elle defended herself, but realized that she should probably choose her words more carefully. "And I wasn't going to kill them either! They tried to kill me! They're bandits, they stole this thing and were going to go rob some people!"

The guard examined Elle closely, and when he saw the buckler strapped to her arm his eyes widened.

"The stolen Aegis! So you're the thief, is that right?"

"No it's not right! I just said they did it!"

"Then why would it happen to be attached to your arm?" the guard asked.

"Because I took it from them when I was fighting them?" Elle offered, knowing already that it wasn't a very good answer.

"I'm sure. If you would be so kind as to come with us without a fight we can discuss your story at our headquarters."

"Hold on!" Louise yelled as she ran out of the alley she had been told to hide in. "I forbid you from taking my bodyguard!"

"And you are?" the guard asked.

"Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, third daughter of Duke Centurion la Vallière and Duchess Karin Desiree la Vallière," Louise introduced herself.

"Karin Vallière? As in, Karin the Heavy Wind?" The center guard asked.

"That is correct," Louise affirmed with a nod of her head.

"Hmm… I suppose there is a small resemblance," the guard on the right said after examining Louise. "And you say this girl is your bodyguard?"

"Indeed. She was escorting me around the town when we happened to stumble across these bandits. We overhead them planning to attack the nearby merchant stands and when we attempted to leave and alert the nearest guards they heard us and attempted to silence us. If not for my bodyguard I would likely been killed."

"I see," the center guard said, rubbing his chin in thought. "Very well. We'll overlook the incident this time."

As the center guard order his two companions to gather up the bandits and bring them in for healing and questioning, Elle swallowed the urge to roll her eyes over the difference in treatment she and Louise got. As much as she hated it, it did make sense that the noble got the benefit of the doubt.

"Thank you for your understanding," Louise said with a small curtsy.

Elle simply nodded her head at the center guard before taking off the Aegis and handing it to him.

"I don't know enough about this to say if it was stolen, but I'm pretty sure that whatever it is it shouldn't be held by lowly bandits, so make sure it gets back wherever it's supposed to go, okay?"

"We will return it to the royal treasure vault at once," the center guard assured Elle. "Thank you for your cooperation."

"Yeah, yeah," Elle said with a dismissive wave before turning around and walking off. "Come on, young master."

Louise nodded and followed after Elle. Once they were out of the alley Elle sighed.

"Well that didn't go the way I was hoping it would," Elle lamented.

"… Yeah," Louise said quietly, not looking at Elle.

"What happened to you?" Elle looked at Louise. "You were sounding fine a minute ago with the guard."

"It's just… At the café when we were talking I almost forgot who you were," Louise said, looking off to the side. "Seeing what you did to those bandits reminded me, I guess."

Elle winced and looked away, somewhat ashamed.

"I said not to watch," was the best response she could come up with.

"You expected me to just close my eyes when my familiar is running into that kind of danger?"

"… No," Elle admitted sheepishly before delivering a quick slap to her own cheeks to try and brighten herself up. "Doesn't matter. They're not dead, and we stopped them from doing some rotten stuff! Good work, Louise!"

"Right. Thanks," Louise said, not sounding particularly enthusiastic.

Elle didn't know what to say to comfort Louise or what to do about the awkward atmosphere that was forming between them.

"Oh! Café! I'll go run over and grab our bags! You left them there, right? I'll be right back!"

Elle decided running away was her best course of action and took off for the café. As Elle ran off, Louise mentally slapped herself. It's not like she didn't know what her familiar was capable of, or what was likely going to happen the second they decided to fight those bandits. However, thinking about something that's likely to happen, and actually seeing something happen are two different things.

 _"I really need to figure out what I'm going to do about her,"_ Louise thought to herself. _"At this rate I won't be able to say a single word to her without thinking about her nearly killing people."_ Louise shook her head to try and clear her thoughts and decided to just follower after Elle for now.

At this time, the familiar in question was having thoughts of her own.

 _"Gotta figure out what to say about this kind of stuff or I'll never be able to have a decent conversation with her,"_ Elle thought to herself as she ran. _"No, more importantly I gotta figure out what that shield was doing here. It should be sealed up in a cave in Alsgard, not floating around Halkeginia with some bandits. Well, I guess if I got brought here there's nothing saying some relics can't have also crossed over. … Oh that's a scary thought. I'll need to keep an ear to the ground, just in case."_


End file.
